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JOURNAL
OP THE
AMERICAN ORIENTAL SOCIETY
EDITED BT
W. NORMAN BROWN JOHN K. SHRYOCK
University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, Pa.
E. A. SPEISER
University of Pennsylvania
24566
VOLUME 55
Cto :
o ■ •
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PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN ORIENTAL SOCIETY
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1935
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
Barret, L. C. : Review of Bloomfield, Edgerton, and Emenau’s Vedic
Variants '. 110
Barton, G. A.: The Second liturgical Poem from Raa Shamra ... 31
Barton, G. A. : Review of Shryock’s Desire and the Universe .... 479
Bates, M. S. : Problems of Rivers and Canals under Han Wu Ti ( 140-
87 b. c.) 303
Bernheimeb, R. : Vitae prophetarum 200
Bonner, C. : Palladas and Jewish Reflection upon the Beginnings of
Man 196
Buckles, F. W. : Firdausi’s Shahndmah and the Genealogia Regni
Dei Supplement, 1
Coomabaswaait, A. K. : Chaya 278
Angel and Titan: An Essay in Vedic Ontology 373
Review of Foucher’s On the Iconography of the Buddha’s
Nativity 323
Review of Binyon’s The Spirit of Man in Asian Art .... 325
Davidson, D. S.: Is the Boomerang Oriental? 163
Dubs, H. H.: The Conjuction of May 205 b. c 311
Dutvendak, J. J. L. : Review of Shryock’s The Origin and Develop-
ment of the State Cult of Confucius 330
Edgerton, F. : Review of Deshmukh’s The Origin and Development of
Religion in Vedic Literature 319
Edgerton, W. F. : On the Origin of Certain Coptic Verbal Forms . . 257
Emenau, M. B. : A Story of Vikrama’s Birth and Accession 59
Feigin, S. I. : A Purchase Document from the Time of Samsu-Iluna
(with 2 plates) 284
Feng, H. Y. and Shryock, J. K. : The Black Magic in China known
as Ku 1
Fernald, H. E. : The Horses of T‘ang T‘ai Tsung and the Stele of Yu 420
Gehman, H. S. : The Garrett Sahidic Manuscript of St. Luke .... 451
Gottheil, R. : Ignazio Guidi — Selected Bibliography 458
Gotze, A. : Some Notes on the Corpus Inscriptionum Chaldicarum . 294
Halt., A. R. : The Early Significance of Chinese Mirrors 182
Hallock, F. H. : Review of Aeskoly’s Les Nome Magiques dans les
Apocryphes Chretiens des Ethiopiens 109
Harris, Z. S. : A Hurrian Affricate or Sibilant in Ras Shamra ... 95
Husick, I. : Maimonides and Spinoza on the Interpretation of the
Bible Supplement, 22
Johnson, H. M. : Review of Charpentier’s The Indian Travels of
Apollonius of Tyana 316
Johnson, J. : Observation of the Equinox at Petra 464
— Review of The Excavations at Dura-Europos, Preliminary
Report of the Fifth Season of Work, October 1931-March 1933,
ed. Rostovtzeff ^ 10
PAGE
Kent, R. G. : Linguistic Science and the Orientalist 115
Kraeling, C. H. : Review of Sukenik’s Ancient Synagogues in Pales-
tine and Greece 107
Khrdian, H.: A Note on the “Description of the Holy Land” hy
Ludolph von Suchem 102
Lachehan, E. R. : New Nuzi Texts and a New Method of Copying
Cuneiform Tablets 429
Malone, C. B.: Review of Goodrich’s The Literary Inquisition of
Ch‘ien-lung 477
Martinovttch, N. : Review of Dimand’s A Guide to an Exhibition of
Islamic Miniature Painting and Book Illumination 105
Review of Jarring’s Studien zur osttiirkischen Lautlehre . . 105
Review of Kahle’s Die verschollene Columbus-Karte von 11/98
in einer tiirkischen Weltkarte von 1513 106
Mendelsohn, I.: The Conditional Sale into Slavery of Free-born
Daughters in Nuzi and the Law of Exodus 21: 7-11 190
Montgomery, J. A.: Ras Shamra Notes III (with two plates) ... 89
Ras Shamra Notes IV : The Conflict of Baal and the Waters
(with 1 plate) 268
Review of Hempels’s Die althebrdische Literatur und ihr
hellenistisches Nachleben 208
Review of Ryckmans’ Les noms propres sud-semitiques . . . 314
Review of Heffening and Kirfel’s (ed.) Studien zur Geschichte
und KulUir des Nahen und Femen Ostens Paul Kahle zum 60.
Geburtstag iiberreicht 472
Muller, V.: Review of Woolley’s Ur Excavations, vol. II: The Royal
Cemetery 204
Review of Speiser’s Excavations at Tepe Gawra 466
Obermann, J. : Political Theology in Early Islam 138
Poleman, H. I. : Review of Keith’s Catalogue of Sanskrit and Prakrit
Manuscripts in the Library of the India Office, Vol. II . . . . 214
Review of Rawson’s The Eatha Upanisad 215
Review of Kumarappa’s The Hindu Conception of Deity as Cul-
minating in Ramanuja 329
Review of Emeneau’s A Union List of Printed Indie Texts and
Translations in American Libraries 482
Rosmarin, T. W. : The Origin of the Alphabet of Ras Shamra and its
Bearing on the Phoenician Alphabet 102
Sakanishi, S. : The Magic Holly in Japanese Literature 444
Review of Pierson’s The Manyosu, Book III 216
Review of Hamada and Umehara’s Shiragi ko-ga no kenkyu . 218
Shryock, J. K. (with Feng, H. Y.) : The Black Magic in China known
as Ku 1
Review of Shih’s The Chinese Renaissance 223
Review of Haydon’s (ed. ) Modem Trends in World-Religions 223
Review of Waddel’s The Buddhism in Tibet 225
Review of Institut international de cooperation intellectuelle’s
PAGE
(Societe des Nations) L’adoption universelle des ca vac teres
Latins
Review of Wales’s Ancient Siamese Government and Adminis-
tration
Review of WulfF’s Chinesisch und Tai 340
Review of Binyon’s Painting in the Far East 341
Shui, T. T. : Review of Jacob and Jensen’s Das chinesische Schatten-
theater 220
Speiser, E. A. : Notes to recently published Nuzi Texts 432
Spoer, H. H. : Arabic Magic Medicinal Bowls (with 5 illustrations) . 237
Swann, N. L. : Review of Driscoll and Toda’s Chinese Calligraphy . . 473
Torrey, C. C. : Hebrew and Aramaic from Beth Shemesh 307
Review of Diringer’s Le Iscrizioni Antico-Ebraiche Palestinesi 469
Review of Littmann’s Syriac Inscriptions 470
List of Books Reviewed
AeSkoly, A. Z. : Les Noms Magiques dans les Apocryphes Chretiens
des Isthiopiens (P. H. Hallock) 110
Binyon, L. : The Spirit of Man in Asian Art (A. K. Coomaraswamy) 325
Painting in the Far East ( J. K. Shryock) 341
Bloomfield, M., Edgerton, F., and Emenatj, M. B.: Vedic Variants
(L. C. Barret) 110
Charpentier, J.: The Indian Travels of Apollonius of Tyana (H. M.
Johnson) 316
Deshmtjkh, P. S. : The Origin and Development of Religion in Vedic
Literature (F. Edgerton) 311
Demand, M. S. : A Guide to an Exhibition of Islamic Miniature Paint-
ing and Book Illumination (N. Martinovich) 105
Diringer, D. : Le Iscrizioni Antico-Ebraiche Palestinesi (C. C. Torrey) 469
Driscoll, L., and Toda, K.: Chinese Calligraphy (N. L. Swann) . . 473
Edgerton, F. (with Bloomfield, M., and Emenatj, M. B.) : Vedic
Variants (L. C. Barret) 110
Emenau, M. B. (with Bloomfield, M., and Edgerton, F.) : Vedic
Variants (L. C. Barret) 110
A Union List of Printed Indie Texts and Translations in
American Libraries (H. I. Poleman) 482
Fotjcher, A.: On the Iconography of the Buddha’s Nativity (A. K.
Coomaraswamy) 323
Goodrich, L. C. : The Literary Inquisition of Ch‘ien-lung (C. B.
Malone) 477
Hamada, K., and Umehaba, S.: Shiragi ko-ga no kenkvu (S. Saka-
nishi) 218
Haydon, E.: Modern Trends in World-Religions (J. K. Shryock) . . 224
Heffening, W., and Kibfel, W. (ed.) : Studien zur Geschichte und
Kultur des Nahen und Fernen Ostens Paul Kahle zum 60.
Geburtstag iiberreicht (J. A. Montgomery) 472
PAGE
Hempel, J. : Die althebraische Literatur und ihr liellenistisches Naeh-
leben ( J. A. Montgomery) 208
Institut international de cooperation intelleotuelle ( SociETfi
des Nations) : L’Adoption universelle des caractferes Latins
(J. K. Shryock) 338
Jacob, G and Jensen, H.: Das chinesische Schattentheater (T. T.
Shui) 220
Jabbing, G. : Studien zu einer tiirkisehen Lautlehre (N. Martinovitch) 105
Jensen, H. (with Jacob, G.) : Das chinesische Schattentheater (T. T.
Shui ) 220
Kahle, P. : Die verschollene Columbus-Karte von 1498 in einer tiirk-
ischen Weltkarte von 1513 (N. Martinovitch) 106
Keith, A. B. : Catalogue of the Sanskrit and Prakrit Manuscripts in
the Library of the India Office (H. J. Poleman) 214
Kirfel, W., with Heffening, W. (eds.) : Studien zur Geschichte und
Kultur des Nahen und Fernen Osten Paul Kahle zum 60.
Geburtstag iiberreicht (J. A. Montgomery) 472
Rumabappa, B. : The Hindu Conception of Deity as Culminating in
Ramanuja (H. I. Poleman) 329
Littmann, E. : Syriac Inscriptions (C. C. Torrey) 470
Pierson, J. L. : The Manyosu, Book III (S. Sakanishi) 216
Rawson, J. N.: The Katha Upanisad (H. I. Poleman) 215
Rostovtzeff, M. I., ed.: The Excavations at Dura-Europos, Prelimi-
nary Report of Fifth Season of Work, October 1931-March 1932
(J. Johnson) 210
Ryckmans, G. : Les noms propres sud-semitiques (J. A. Montgomery) 314
Shih, H.: The Chinese Renaissance (J. K. Shryock) 223
Shbyock, J. K. : The Origin and Development of the State Cult of
Confucius (J. J. L. Duyvendak) 330
Desire and the Universe (G. A. Barton) 479
Speiser, E. A.: Excavations at Tepe Gawra (V. Muller) 466
Sukenik, E. L. : Ancient Synagogues in Palestine and Greece (C. H.
Kraeling) 107
Toda, K., with Driscoll, L. : Chinese Calligraphy (N. L. Swann) . . 473
Umehaba, S. (with Hamada, K. ) : Shiragi ko-ga no kenkyu (S. Saka-
nishi) 218
Waddell, L. A.: The Buddhism in Tibet, second edition (J. K.
Shryock) 225
Wales, H. G. Q. : Ancient Siamese Government and Administration
(J. K. Shryock)
Woolley, C. L. : Ur Excavations, vol. II: The Royal Cemetery (V.
Muller) 204
Wulff, K. : Chinesisch und Tai (J. K. Shryock) 340
Brief Communications: Rosmarin 101
Kurdian
Bonner
Bernheimer 200
Torrey 307
2
PAGE
Bbief Communications: Dubs 310
Johnson, J 464
Constitution and By-Laws (present and proposed forms) 226
Notes of the Society 113, 236, 343, 484
Notes of Other Societies 113, 344, 484
Personalia 114, 236, 486
Proceedings of the Society at Ann Arbor 345
Illustrations :
Reproduction of Virolleaud’s Tablet No. 2 after p. 88
Transliteration (from preceding illustration) in Parallelistic Ar-
rangement after p. 88
Five illustrations from Arabic Magic Medicinal Bowls
238, 247, 248, 250, 251
A Ras Shamra Text facing p. 268
A Babylonia Contract (2 plates) 286, 287
Tablet of the Horse “ Curly ”... in situ after p. 428
Tablet of the Horse “ Curly ”... in the University Museum after p. 428
Tablet of the Horse “Autumn Dew ”... in situ after p. 428
Tablet of the Horse “Autumn Dew ”... in the University Museum
after p. 428
So-called “ large rubbing ” of the Horse “ Autumn Dew ” . after p. 428
So-called “ small rubbing ” of the Horse “ Curly ” . . . . after p. 428
The Stele of Yu Shih-hsiung (rubbing) after p. 428
Detail of the Stele of Yu after p. 428
Rubbings from Stone Slab: (a) relief on left end, (b) border design
after p. 428
Riv plates illustrating Nuzi Texts after p. 431
Garrett Sahidic Manuscript of St. Luke, folio 24a .... facing p. 451
Supplement: FirdausI-Maimonides Anniversary Number:
Buckler, F. W. : Firdausi’s 8hah-namah and the Genealogia Regni
Dei
Husik, I : Maimonides and Spinoza on the Interpretation of the
Bible
22
THE BLACK MAGIC IN CHINA KNOWN AS KU *
H. Y. Peng and J. K. Shryock
University of Pennsylvania
A number of ideas and practices are grouped together under
the Chinese term Tcu. 1 These ideas and practices justify the use
of the phrase “ Black Magic ” ; that is, magic whose purpose is to
injure someone. In this sense the word is contrasted with wuf
“ White Magic,” or magic whose purpose is beneficial. The phrase
“ Black Magic ” is too general, however, for the Chinese term Tcu
refers to certain particular methods of black magic, which are, so
far as the authors are aware, peculiar to certain cultures of South-
Eastern Asia. In ancient times this specific feature of culture may
have been spread over a wider area.
At present, Tcu is used primarily as a means of acquiring wealth ;
secondarily as a means of revenge. The method is to place poison-
ous snakes and insects together in a vessel until there is but one sur-
vivor, which is called the Tcu. The poison secured from this Tcu is
administered to the victim, who becomes sick and dies. The ideas
associated with Tcu vary, but the Tcu is generally regarded as a spirit,
which secures the wealth of the victim for the sorcerer.
Archaeological evidence indicates that the word Tcu is at least as
ancient as the Chinese script itself. The earliest reliable speci-
mens of Chinese writing are inscriptions on the shells of tortoises
and on the shoulder-blades of cattle, found in a Yin-Shang site at
An-vang, Honan, in 1899. An ancient form of the word Tcu has
been identified on these fragments. This form is more pictorial
than the present form of the word, and shows clearly two insects in
a receptacle. 3
This written word therefore has existed in approximately its
present form for at least three thousand years. The ideographic
nature of Chinese writing and the continuity of Chinese literature
have the effect that while a written symbol may acquire new mean-
* The preparation of this article was made possible by a grant from the
Faculty Research Fund of the University of Pennsylvania.
1 S ; formed by ch‘ung (insects, worms, etc.) ^ over min (vessel,
dish > im. '
’&•
x^mn chuan 13 - B - v m m m-
... L
— .r - ' nr-
,c ' _
* •^ •■library Regr //o
Y'.V'SV
2
H. T. Feng and J. K. Shryock
ings and associations in the course of time, these seldom entirely
supersede and eliminate the older meanings, as may happen in
phonetic systems. Consequently, while some of the meanings
attached to the word bu may be older than others, we can be fairly
sure that the oldest meaning has not been lost.
The Shuo wen, a dictionary of about a. d. 100, says, “ Ku is
worms in the belly. The commentary on the Spring and Autumn
Annals (the Tso chuan ) says, ‘Vessel and worms make hu, caused
by licentiousness. Those who have died violent deaths are also bu.’ 4
The word vessel signifies the utility of the thing.” As is indicated
by this definition, the Chinese written word is formed by the radical
meaning “ insects ” or “ worms ” placed above the radical meaning
“ vessel ” or “ dish.”
In the Pre-Han literature, the word is used in five different ways.
It indicates (1) a disease, (2) evil spirits, (3) to cause doubt, or
a woman inveigling a man, (4) a worm-eaten vessel, and grain
which moulders and is blown away, and (5) a divination symbol.
Some of these meanings have become attached to the word by
analogy.
The use of bu as a disease may be illustrated by a passage from
the Tso chuan.
“ In the first year of duke Chao (541 b. c.), the marquis of Chin
asked the help of a physician from Ch £ in, and the earl of Ch £ in
sent one named Ho to see him. Ho said, £ The disease cannot be
cured. It is said that when women are approached [too frequently]
the result is a disease resembling bu. It is not caused by a spirit,
nor by food (the methods of magic) ; it is a delusion which has
destroyed the mind.’ ” When asked what he meant by bu, he
replied, ££ £ I mean that [disease] which is produced by excessive
sexual indulgence. Consider the w T ord ; it is formed by the words
for vessel and for insects. It is also used for grain which [mould-
ers and] flies away. In the Boob of Changes, a woman deluding
a man, and wind throwing down [the trees of] a mountain, are bu.
All these have the same signification.’ ”
The fundamental idea of bu as a disease is based on an analogy.
The human body is regarded as a vessel, into which the disease
spirits enter like insects. Many early peoples have regarded dis-
ease as due to the possession of the body by an alien spirit. Ex-
* This passage is later quoted in full.
The Black Magic in China Known as “ Ku ”
3
cessive sexual indulgence causes a man to lose his virility, his soul.
This is not ku, but the effect is similar to the effect of ku. There-
fore a woman inveigling a man has come by analogy to be called ku.
It will be shown that ancient Chinese ideas associated the wind
with the generation of worms. This is applied to mouldering
grain, either in the sense that the chaff is blown away by the wind,
or that worms generate in the grain, become insects and fly away.
It appears that the essential idea behind these meanings of ku is
a loss of soul.
In the Shih chi feng ch‘an shu, 5 it is said that “ Duke Teh of
Chin instituted the fou sacrifice, killing dogs at the four gates of
the eity r to dispel the ku plague.” The Ch‘in pen chi 6 says, “ In
the second year (of Duke Teh) dogs were killed to ward off ku.”
Dogs have frequently been used in Chinese apotropaic practices,
from ancient times until the present.
In the Shan hai ching 7 it is said, “ Again east 300 li, there is
the mountain called Ching-chiu, and there is an animal like the fox,
having nine tails and the voice of a baby. It eats men, but those
who eat it are immune to ku.” A commentary remarks on this
passage, 8 that such men will not “encounter evil atmosphere.”
This appears to identify ku with malignant atmospheric condi-
tions, something like poison gas. But it might also be interpreted
as indicating the presence of evil spirits, or something created by-
black magic.
Cheng Ssu-nung, in his commentary on the Ta isung po 9 said,
“ At present, people kill dogs in sacrifice to stop the wind.” Kuo
P‘u, 10 i Q his commentary on the Erh ya, remarks, “ The modern
custom of sacrificing dogs in the highways is said to stop the wind.”
Such customs are very old, and have survived to the present in the
belief that the blood of black dogs is an effective antidote to magic.
While these latter references are not from pre-Han literature, they
probably reflect pre-Han beliefs.
5 A ta #•
• Chap. 5 of the Shih chi. The passage is quoted by De Groot, Religious
System of China, Vol. V, p. 826.
8 Ibid., Commentary by Kuo P‘u j|J$ J||.
‘ % m & m chiian
10 it m m % % a “ & a e m” ° ommentar - v b - v Kuo p ‘ u -
4
E. Y. Feng and J. E. Bhryock
The Book of Changes is an ancient work on divination, consist-
ing of the explanations of sixty-four hexagrams, or figures secured
in divination. The eighteenth hexagram is formed by the ken
trigram placed above the sun trigram. The ken trigram is a symbol
of mountains, of resting and stopping, and of the youngest son.
The sun trigr am symbolizes wind or wood, flexibility, penetration,
and oldest daughter. The entire hexagram is called ku. The text
of the Book of Changes dealing with the hexagram as a whole,
which is probably the oldest strata of the text, is as follows :
“ Ku indicates great progress and success. There will be advan-
tage in crossing the great river.” . . . This means that when a man
divined, and secured the hexagram ku, the omen was auspicious.
It meant that the one who divined would be successful, while his
enemies would be injured. Crossing the river was equivalent to an
offensive military expedition. The way in which the hexagram ku
was used in practice may be illustrated by an incident from the
Tso chuan.
“ In the eleventh month of the fifteenth year of Duke He, the
marquis of Chin and the earl of Chfin fought at Han, and the
marquis of Chin was taken. Before the expedition, the earl of
Ch‘in asked his diviner, T‘u-fu, to consult the milfoil, and he
replied,
“ ‘ A lucky response ; if they cross the river, the chariots of the
marquis will be defeated/
“ The earl asked to have the matter more fully explained.
“ The diviner said, ‘ It is very lucky. You will defeat his troops
three times, and finally capture the marquis of Chin. The figure
found is ku, of which it is said,
“ The thousand chariots are put to flight three times.
“ Then you catch what remains, called the fox.
“ That fox in ku must be the marquis of Chin. Moreover, the
inner symbol of ku represents wind, while the outer represents
mountains. It is now autumn. We gather the fruit on the hills,
and we shake the trees; it is plain we are to be victorious. The
fruit falls down, and the trees are all shaken; what can this be
but the defeat of Chin ? ’ ”
The present text of the Book of Changes cannot be older than
the Chou period, but the hexagrams are much older. Chinese tra-
dition says that there were different explanations given to the hexa-
grams in the Hsia and Shang periods. The oracle bones show that
The Black Magic in China Known as “ Ku ”
5
the word ku, written as insects in a vessel, was in existence during
the Shang period. The authors of this monograph advance the
theory that if we had the Shang explanations of the hexagrams, the
two trigrams which in the Chou period were held to represent
mountains and wind, would be found to represent vessel and insects.
In using eight symbols to represent many things, each symbol
must do more than single duty. The written Chinese words for
mountains and vessel are very similar. The theory advanced is
that the trigram which in the Chou period symbolized mountains,
in the Shang period symbolized vessel. This is merely an
hypothesis.
But in the case of the other trigram there is very good evidence
for the association of insects and wind, Huai-nan Tzu says : 11
“ Heaven is one. Barth is two. Man is three. Three times
three is nine. Two times nine is eighteen. The number eight
stands for wind. Wind represents worms. Therefore worms are
transformed in eight days.” It will be noticed that the number
eighteen is the number of the hexagram ku.
The Shuo wen, in defining the character feng (wind), says,
“ When the wind blows, worms generate. Therefore worms are
transformed in eight days.”
A commentator on this passage, Hsii Hao, 12 says, “ The wind
has no form that can be pictured, so the character is made from
the thing which the wind generates. Therefore the radical ‘ worm ’
is the base of the character ‘ wind.’ When the geomancer is search-
ing for a favorable spot in the country, he observes where the wind
goes, and he knows that below that spot there are ants. This is
the verification of the expression, ‘ The wind blows, and worms
generate. ’ ”
Although the Huai-nan Tzu and the Shuo wen belong to the
Han period, the belief in the connection between the wind and
worms must be very old, since the character for wind is written
with the radical for worms. The connection appears to have been
forgotten, since the Tso chuan interprets the hexagram as wind
blowing down mountains, an interpretation which does not make
sense. The hypothesis advanced here, which does not seem to have
occurred to scholars, is that the original meaning of the hexagram
was not mountains and wind, but worms in a vessel. This idea is
n a
12
6
H. Y. Feng and J. K. Shryock
clearly indicated by the written form of ku on the oracle bones.
And as ku was a kind of black magic, the hypothesis explains why
the hexagram indicated success to the diviner and injury to his
opponent. That was the purpose of black magic . 13
The Chou li says, describing a part of the ancient administra-
tion , 14 “ The department consisted of an official and four assistants.
They were in charge of the extermination of the poisonous ku.
They drove it out by spells, and attacked it by efficacious herbs.
They directed those who could control ku, and watched the
effect .” 15
Cheng K‘ang-eh‘eng’s commentary on this passage in the Chou
li quotes the criminal law of the Han dynasty as saying, “ Those
who dare to poison people with ku, or teach others to do it, will be
publicly executed.” The law of the Han was based on earlier codes,
going back at least to the fourth century b. c., and it is not
unlikely that the practice of ku was forbidden from the time of
the first legal codes in China, perhaps long before. If ku always
represented a method of injuring others, this is what we would
expect, since black magic is usually illegal.
1S European scholars have done little work on the subject of ku. It is
mentioned by Granet, Chinese Civilization, p. 254, and by A. Conrady,
“ Yih-King-Studien,” Asia Major, Vol. VII, 1932, p. 418, who translates
the term as “ Hexenkessel.” The practice of ku among the Miao is men-
tioned by S. R. Clarke, Among the Tribes of South-West China, China
Inland Mission, 1911, pp. 70, 71. E. T. Williams, “Witchcraft in the
Chinese Penal Code,” Jour. Rorth China Branch, Royal Asiatic Society,
Vol. XXXVIII, 1907, pp. 61-90, gives a brief description of ku, and of
legal efforts to stamp it out. The fullest treatment of ku in a European
work is in J. J. M. De Groot, Religious System of China, Vol. V, pp. 826-69.
De Groot devotes a chapter to the subject. But unfortunately half his
space is filled with a description of the Wu-ku Rebellion under Han Wu Ti.
Wu-ku was a general term (“White and Black Magic”) for any sort of
magic, and the rebellion, as well as the conspiracy under the Empress Teng
200 years later, had nothing to do with the peculiar methods of ku. De
Groot’s treatment is unsatisfactory in other respects.
14 attempt is made here to give the various legal enactments against
the practice of ku. The penal code of the T'ang dynasty on this subject
has generally continued in force, and is quoted in later dynastic codes. The
practice of ku is called an inhuman crime. One who makes ku, or instructs
in its use, is hanged, his property confiscated, his family and the inmates
of his house are banished 3,000 li, etc. § ^ f|| chiian 18.
15 Chap. 37. De Groot quotes this passage, p. 826, but mistranslates the
last phrase.
The Black Magic in China Known as “ Ku ”
7
In Ku Yeh-wang’s Yii ti chih 16 it is said, “ In several provinces
south of the Yangtse river, there are people who keep ku. The
host uses it to kill people. He puts it in food or drink, and the
victims do not realize its presence. If the family of the keeper
of the ku all die, the ku flies about without any objective. Any-
one who encounters it is killed.” The Yii ti chih is a work of the
sixth century a. d., the period of the Six Dynasties, corresponding
to the early middle ages in Europe.
In the Sou shen chi 17 of Kan Pao , 18 attributed to the fourth
century a. d., is the following passage :
“ In the province of Yung-yang, there was a family by the name
of Liao. For several generations they manufactured ku, becoming
rich from it. Later one of the family married, but they kept the
secret from the bride. On one occasion, everyone went out except
the bride, who was left in charge of the house. Suddenly she
noticed a large cauldron in the house, and on opening it, perceived
a big snake inside. She poured boiling water into the cauldron and
killed the snake. When the rest of the family returned she told
them what she had done, to their great alarm. Xot long after, the
entire family died of the plague.” Kan Pao also mentions a variety
called “ dog ku,” and says that the magic can take the forms of
various animals.
“ Chao Shou of the P‘o-yang district possessed dog ku. Once a
man named Ch‘en Tsen visited Chao, when he was attacked by six
or seven large yellow dogs. Yu Hsiang-po 19 (another man) once
ate with Chao’s wife. Later he almost died from hemorrhage, and
was saved by drinking a medicine prepared from the roots of the
orange tree. Ku has a strange, ghostly appearance. It can appear
in many forms, as dogs, pigs, worms or snakes. It is not recog-
nized by the man himself. All who get it, die.”
In the Sou shen hou chi : 20 “Tan Yu was a poor and devout
16 m & m- £’ A. D. 519-81. A scholar and official.
17 K it t£ cMan 12 -
18 rp *jj. 4th Cent. a. d. The author flourished under Chin Yuan Ti.
His book is a collection of supernatural tales. He Groot quotes these
stories (p. 846), but misreads the author’s surname as Yii. Giles, Biog.
Diet., p. 357, uses the correct form.
18 De Groot translates Yu Hsiang-po as “paternal uncle,” but hsiang
is not a relationship term.
30 If % ffi’ chUan 2 - Attributed T ‘ ac> Chien I® a famous
poet.
8
H. Y. Feng and J. K. Shryock
monk. There was a family in the district of Yen who manufac-
tured ku. Those who ate their food, died from hemorrhage. Tan
Yu once visited this family, and the host prepared food for him.
Tan Yu recited an incantation, and saw a pair of centipedes a foot
long suddenly crawl away from the dish. He then ate the food, and
returned home without being harmed.”
In the biography of Ku Chi-chih in the Liu Sung history (a. d.
420-479), an instance of ku poisoning is recorded. “ Yang Tzu,
of the Hsiang district, went to Chu Ch‘i’s mother P £ en’s house to
drink wine. On returning home he became ill, and vomitted more
than ten ku worms. Seeing that he was about to die, he directed
his wife Chang that after death she should cut open his abdomen in
order to get rid of the disease. Later Chang cut open his body,
and saw his ‘ five viscera ’ completely destroyed.” 21
These instances from the medieval period of Chinese history indi-
cate a view that ku was a kind of poison which was administered in
food and drink. A little later a medical work, the Tsao shih chu
ping yuan hou tsung lun 22 of the Sui period (a. d. 589-618)
describes how this poison was manufactured.
“There are several kinds of ku. All of them are poisonous.
People sometimes deliberately prepare ku. They take worms,
insects, snakes, and other poisonous creatures, and put them to-
gether in a vessel. They allow them to eat each other until only
one is left, and this survivor is the ku. The ku can change its
appearance and bewitch people. When put in food and drink, it
causes disease and calamity (to the one who eats it). There is also
‘ flying ku.’ It comes and goes without one’s knowledge, and even-
tually appears somewhat like a ghost. Those who have seen it,
die.”
This appears to be the earliest account, not later than a. d. 600,
of how this magical process was carried out. It gives a reasonable
explanation of the formation of the written word, formed of insects
and dish. The explanation is still more suitable for the pictograph
found on the oracle bones of the Shang period.
The idea behind this practice is quite reasonable. If centipedes
11 The narrative goes on to say that the widow w r as accused of the crime
of mistreating her husband’s corpse. The case was brought before Ku
Chi-chih, who acquired considerable reputation from the way he handled it
”*Mtt #!*§>£ &!&> chuan 25. A medical work of the Sui
period.
The Black Magic in China Known as “ Ku ” 9
and snakes are poisonous individually, the survivor of such a group,
who has eaten the others, is considered to combine within himself
the collected venom of the group. If a man desires to injure an
enemy, no more formidable weapon could be put into his hand.
The difficulty is to say when this rational, if mistaken, process
becomes pure magic. Action at a distance does not seem to be one
of the properties of ku. Poisoning and magic are found together
in all countries, from the days of Medea. Some of the stories are
pure magic, while others indicate no more than a use of poison.
The evidence presented so far may be summarized. The word
itself goes back to the oldest written records of the Chinese lan-
guage. The pictograph clearly shows insects, worms, or snakes in
a reeeptable. But in the ancient literature of the Chou period, the
word is used in a number of ways, of which the most important and
primary appear to be as a diseased condition and as a divination
symbol. How far may a magical practice first described clearly
about A. d. 600 be ascribed to the period before 500 b. c. ?
The literature which has survived from the Chou period has been
carefully edited, for the most part by Confucians, beginning, accord-
ing to tradition, with Confucius himself. In their desire to ideal-
ize the past, and to show, not what really occurred, but what ought
to have occurred, they have created great difficulties for the
ethnologist.
But it often happens that ideas and practices which are never
mentioned in literature, especially in moral, religious, and philo-
sophic literature, survive unchanged in the lives of the people. The
explanation that ku was originally a magical practice agrees with
the pictograph on the oracle bones, with the use of the word to
describe a disease, and with its use in divination. The Tso chuan
indicates that in divination, the symbol indicated that the diviner
would be successful in injuring his enemy. In the Han period, the
term was used for black magic, and in the medieval period, for a
magical method of poisoning an enemy. Therefore it seems rea-
sonable to assume that the term always stood for black magic.
Early Chinese literature describes the culture of the valley of
the Yellow Biver. Later literature indicates that the practice of
ku extended at one time over the whole area included in China
proper. This was probably true long before there is any evidence
from the Yangtse valley, or the more southern regions. Even in
the medieval period, Chinese observers remarked on the prevalence
10
H. Y. Feng and J. K. Shryock
of the practice in southern China, and from the T'ang period on,
the practice appears to have been more and more confined to aborigi-
nal tribes of the south. The policy of repression definitely stated
by Cheng K‘ang-ch‘eng in his commentary on the Chou li appears
to have been largely effective throughout the more characteristically
Chinese areas, and later writers notice the practice of leu in the
south as a peculiar phenomenon. Nevertheless, the practice of leu
seems to have been a specific cultural feature which the ancient
inhabitants of the Yellow Eiver valley shared with the inhabitants
of more southern areas.
The Ling piao lu i 23 of Lin Shun, written about A. d. 900,
which is one of the earliest geographic works dealing with Kuang-
tung and the adjacent southern areas, contains the following
passage :
“ The mountains and rivers of Ling-piao wind and cluster to-
gether. It is not easy to go out or come in. Therefore the district
abounds in fogs and mists which become pestilential vapors. Peo-
ple exposed to them are liable to become sick. Their stomachs swell,
and they become leu. It is popularly said that there are persons
who collect poisonous insects in order to make ku and poison people.
I think that this is due to the humidity of the place, which causes
poisonous creatures to flourish there, and not because the people of
Ling-piao are cruel by nature.”
From the Sung period on (beginning about a. d. 960), all refer-
ences to ku assign its practice to the tribes of the southwest. There
is an instance recorded in the Ling wai tai ta of Chou Chhi-fei. 24
“ The ku poison of Kuangsi is of two kinds. One kind kills a
man quickly, while the other works gradually and does not kill for
six months. If a man has a grudge against anyone, he is courteous
to him, but poisons him secretly. After half a year, the poison
takes effect. The murderer cannot be brought to law, and the
poisoning cannot be cured. This is the most cruel form of ku.
In 1170, on the eastern side of Ching-chou, there was a seller of
sauce who prepared ku. It was discovered, and the man executed.
23 -jit He J!|' chuan 1. A work of the Tang period, and one of the
earliest geographical works now existing about Kuangtung and the
adjacent areas.
” ^ ^ > chiian 10. By ^ ^ The author was assistant
sub-prefect of Kuei-lin, in Kuangsi, during the years A. D. 1174-89. The
story is given by De Groot, p. 848.
The Black Magic in China Known as “ Ku ”
11
It is said that when his family prepared ku , the women, naked and
with dishevelled hair, made a nightly sacrifice of a dish of deer-
meat soup. Grasshoppers, butterflies, and all kinds of insects came
down from the roof and ate the soup. That which they emitted
was the poison. If anyone wishes to know whether a family keeps
ku poison, they can tell from the cleanliness of the house. If every-
thing is kept very clean, then the family has ku. When the natives
of Li-t‘ung and Chi-f'un g (in southwestern China) invite guests
to a feast, the host must first taste the food in order to convince
the guests that there are no grounds for suspicion.”
There is a somewhat similar reference in the gazetteer of
Yung-fu, a district of Kuangsi . 25 “ Ku poison is not found gen-
erally among the people (i. e. the Chinese), but is used by the
Thing 26 women. It is said that on the fifth day of the fifth
month , 27 they go to a mountain stream and spread new clothes and
headgear on the ground, with a bowl of water beside them. The
women dance and sing naked, inviting a visit from the King of
Medecine (a tutelary spirit). They wait until snakes, lizards, and
poisonous insects come to bathe in the bowl. They pour the water
out in a shadowy, damp place. Then they gather the fungus (poi-
sonous?) which grows there, which they mash into a paste. They
put this into goose-feather tubes, and hide them in their hair.
The heat of their bodies causes worms to generate, which resemble
newly-hatched silk-worms. Thus ku is produced. It is often con-
cealed in a warm, damp place in the kitchen.
“ The newly made ku is not yet poisonous. It is used as a love
potion, administered in food and drink, and called ‘love-medi-
cine.’ 28 Gradually the ku becomes poisonous. As the poison
develops, the woman’s body itches until she has poisoned someone.
If there is no other opportunity, she will poison even her husband
or her sons, but she possesses antidotes.
“ It is believed that those who produce ku themselves become ku
25 zit m M jg > i uoted b >- Wan S Sen & in his # W H ft
chiian 18.
The chief aboriginal tribe of Kuangsi.
27 The fifth day of the fifth month is an important day in the Chinese
religious calendar, the day of the “ Dragon Boat Festival.” The story told
in connection with it dates from the 3rd Cent. b. c., but the festival is
probably much older.
" Igor
12
H. 7. Feng and J. K. Shryock
after death. The ghosts of those who have died from the poison
become their servants. So a majority of the foolish Thing make
this thing. When a man enters a house in a Thing village, if he
sees no ashes on the hearth, and if the faces of the women appear
yellow and their eyes red, he knows that there is ku in that house.
Bronze chop-sticks are used as a charm against ku. Dipped into
poisoned food, they cause it to turn black ”...
A similar ease is recorded in the Shuang huai sui ch‘ao , 29 “ Dur-
ing the reign of Cheng Thing (1436-49), Chou Li of the district
of Wu-chiang traded in Ssu-eng of Kuangsi, and married a widowed
daughter of the Cheng family. He remained there twenty years,
until their son was sixteen. One day Chou Li wanted to return
home. His wife was unable to dissuade him, hut she put ku in
Chou Li’s food without his knowledge. She bade her son follow
him, and told the boy secretly that if his father promised to come
back, he should cure him. For this purpose she taught him the
antidote. When Chou Li reached home the ku began to affect
him. His belly became swollen, and he drank water excessively.
His son asked the date on which he would return to his wife.
“ Chou Li replied, ‘ I also think of your mother, but I am sick.
How can I go back? As soon as I get a little better, I shall start.’
“ The son replied, ‘ I can cure the disease.’ He bound his father
to a pillar. Chou Li was thirsty and asked for a drink. His son
offered him a clay bowl filled with water, but when it was almost
at his mouth, the boy threw it away. This happened several hun-
dred times. Chou Li became so thirsty that he could hardly bear
it. Shortly after, he vomited out a small carp, which was still
alive. The swelling soon disappeared, and he was cured. Among
the barbarians there are many ku poisons so made as to become
effective at a certain date. After that date, the case cannot be
cured. Widows are called ‘ ghosts’ wives,’ and men dare not
approach them. When strangers marry them, they are usually
poisoned.”
There is a reference to ku in the Shu i chi. 30 “ In Tien (Yun-
" H tfc & cMan 5 - % H f^- 15th Cent. A. D. Chronological
records of miscellaneous facts from 1368 (the beginning of the Mine
dynasty) to 1487.
S ° *§ fl t&’ chUan 2 - B y ^ IT ± A (a P en name )- The author
is unknown. The facts recorded occurred under the Manchu reigns Shun-
The Black Magic in China Known as “ Ku ”
13
nan) there are many ku sorcerers, especially among the women.
They often seduce men. If the beloved was about to go on a long
journey, he was always poisoned with ku. If the man did not
return on the promised date, he died. There was a traveler who
went to Tien and loved a woman. When he was leaving the place,
the woman said to him, ‘ I have already poisoned you with ku.
If you do not return as you have promised, your belly will swell,
and then you must come to me as quickly as possible. After a
month, it will be incurable. 5 On that day the man’s belly really
became swollen. He hesitated to return ; then his abdomen burst,
and he died. People found in his belly a wooden trough for feed-
ing pigs. It is certainly strange ! ”
It is significant that in these stories all the practitioners of this
love magic are women of the aboriginal tribes of the southwest.
In the Sui shu ti li chih 31 it is recorded that “ the inhabitants of
these districts (in Kiangsi and some other areas south of the
Yangtse) often kept ku poison, and the practice was especially
prevalent in 1-ch‘un. The method is, on the fifth day of the fifth
month to collect all kinds of insects and worms, from snakes to lice,
putting them together in a vessel, where they devour each other.
The survivor is kept. If it should be a snake, it is snake-tu. If a
louse, then it is louse-few. This ku is used to kill people. It is
administered through food, and afterwards it consumes the vic-
tim’s internal organs. When the person dies, his property is moved
by the ku spirit to the house of the keeper of the ku. If for three
years the keeper does not kill a man with the ku, the keeper him-
self is killed by it. It is handed down from generation to genera-
tion, and is given to a daughter as a dowry. Kan Pao (the author
of the Sou shen chi) regarded ku as a spirit, but this view is mis-
taken. During the rebellion of Hou Ching, most of the few-keeping
families perished. Since the ku had no master, it wandered about
the roads, and those who met it, died.”
Another variety of ku is called the “ golden caterpillar,” or chin-
isan. Li Shih-chen in the Pen tsao kang mu 32 quotes C’h‘en
chih and K‘ang-hsi, about the middle of the 17th Cent. It treats of the
supernatural, and was published in 1701.
31 gjg :g| Jjjj jjg *, chuan 31. The geographical section of the Sui
dynasty history.
" -fa |if m g , chuan 42. By ■ A well known medical work
containing extracts from more than 800 authors, and describing 1,892
14
H. Y. Feng and J. K. Shryoch
Tsang-chi of the T‘ang period as follows : “ The ashes of old satin
can cure ‘the Jcu worms which eat satin.’ The commentary says,
‘ The worm crawls like a finger ring. It eats old satin brocade and
other silk cloths, just as the silk-worm eats mulberry leaves.’ In
my opinion, this is the chin-tsan.” According to Li, the golden
caterpillars originated in Szechuan and from there made their way
into the Hukuang provinces.
The T‘ieh wei shan tsung hua of Tsai T‘ao 33 says, “ The chin-
tsan poison began in Szechuan, but now it has spread to Hu,
Kuang, Min and Yueh (Hupeh, Hunan, Kuangtung, Kuangsi,
Fukien and Chekiang). There are people who give it away, and
this is called * giving the golden caterpillar a husband.’ Those who
do this place gold, ornaments for dressing the head, satin and bro-
cade with the worm, and put it beside the road for others to find.
The magistrate of Yii-lin told me that there was a legal case in-
volving this practice in the district of Fu-ch‘ing. One man brought
charge against another, stating that the latter had poisoned his
family with chin-tsan. The magistrate could not find any evidence
of such poison having been used. Then someone suggested bring-
ing hedgehogs to the house of the accused. Since the chin-tsan is
known to be afraid of hedgehogs, this advice was followed. The
chin-tsan dared not move, although it hid in a hole under the bed.
It was caught and pulled out by the two hedgehogs. It is really
astonishing.” 34
The Kua i chih 35 says, “ The chin-tsan is a caterpillar the color
medicines. The last half of the 16th Cent. De Groot makes considerable
use of the work.
" Wi f§ III M chiiai1 6 - % ^ First half of the 12th Cent.
It treats of events contemporary with the author. The passage is quoted
in part by De Groot, p. 850.
” Williams, “ Witchcraft in the Chinese Penal Code,” p. 91, quotes the
Hsi yiian lu ijfc g|, a guide to magistrates in their duties as coroners,
as saying that a medicine including two centipedes, one alive, one roasted,
was a cure for ku. De Groot, pp. 863-69, gives a large number of remedies
and antidotes for ku, collected from various medical works. They include
musk, cinnabar, striped cats, dried centipedes (for snake ku) , leek-juice,
and “ thunder stones.” These last are prehistoric implements, stone knives
and axes, often found in Kuangtung and the island of Hainan. Domestic
fowls are said to detect ku.
“ If Icf'- Quoted b - v De Groot > P- 854. By Jfg. H 0 f the Sung
period. Not to be confused with another book bv the same name by
m m je-
The Black Magic in China Known as “ Ku ”
15
of gold. It is fed with Shu satin, and its excretions collected, which
are then put into food and drink in order to poison people. Those
who take it, die. Then the spirit of the worm is glad, and moves
the valuables of the deceased to the house of the practitioner, mak-
ing him suddenly rich. But to get rid of the worm is difficult,
because water, fire and swords cannot harm it. The only way is to
put gold and silver into a basket with the chin-tsan, and then place
the basket beside a road. Someone passing by may take it. This
is called £ giving the chin-tsan a husband.’ ”
The Fan T‘ien lu fan tsung 36 says, “ The antidote for those
poisoned by the chin-tsan is food from the home of one who has
kept the ku. But it must be given by the keeper of the ku per-
sonally, for if it is given by anyone else, the antidote will not be
effective. Hence if the person knows where he was poisoned, he
can go to the man who poisoned him and beg him pitifully for
relief. The man will not acknowledge the act at first, but after
incessant pleading, he will angrily take a little food and throw it to
the patient. On eating it, the victim will be cured instantly. When
the appointed time for poisoning arrives and there are no outsiders
present, even the keeper’s own relatives may become his victims,
for otherwise the spirit would cause a calamity of some sort. The
spirit is appeased by the poisoning, because the spirits of the vic-
tims become his slaves.” 37 There do not seem to be any descrip-
tions of the way in which the chin-tsan ku is produced. It is said
to be the third stage in the development of ku.
Another variety of ku poison is called fiao-sheng . 38 This kind
of ku is more clearly black magic. It is described in the Ling wai
tai ta . 33 “ In Kuangsi, those who kill people by fiao-sheng be-
witch the food, and invite guests to eat. When eaten, the fish and
meat become alive again, living in the victim’s stomach, and even-
tually kill him. It is currently believed that the spirits of those
who have met death through fiao-sheng become slaves in the home
of the sorcerer. Once a celebrated scholar, while judge of Lei-chou
88 ^ Wi’ c ^ an 33. By JJjb j£. A work of miscellaneous
notes, published by the Chung-hua Book Co. of Shanghai in 1926.
37 Ibid.
The phrase may be translated as “ to revive,” or “ to become
alive again.”
” ^ chUan 10 -
16
H. 7. Feng and J. K. ShryocTc
(on the island of Hai-nan), had an experience with fiao-sheng.
He covered some meat with a plate and asked the culprit to bewitch
it, in order to test the efficiency of his art. After a while he took
up the plate, and hairs were growing out of the meat. What a devil
it must be who can do this! Yet undoing the enchantment was
quite easy. If you feel that the magic is in your stomach, take
sheng-ma and vomit it out. Then if you feel the magic in your
intestines, quickly take yii-chin and pass it out. This prescription
was printed in Lei-chou for distribution and given to the people
after it had been obtained from the culprit.”
The Ch‘i hsiu lei kao 40 says, “ In Yunnan, Kueichou and
Kuangsi, what is called fiao-sheng is withcraft. The sorcerer
invites people to eat fish and meat which have been bewitched.
When they have eaten them, the animals become alive again in their
organs, and then proceed to kill the victims. I (the author) saw
recorded in Fan Shih-hu’s Kuei hai yii heng chih 41 that there was
at that time a man named Li Sou-weng, a judge of Lei-chou. He
secured a good prescription . . . (then follows the prescription,
which is similar to that in the preceding paragraph). Officials of
the place are often attacked by this magic. The prescription is not
readily available, so I publish it here.”
The Nan chung tsa chi 42 says, “ The chiefs of Yiian-chiang have
handed down the method of producing ku. This medicine is not
beneficent, but is poisonous. An astonishing fact is that when a
new magistrate arrives the people must prepare a feast to welcome
him, and they poison him then. The poison does not become effec-
tive during his term of office, but the pupils of his eyes turn from
black to blue, and his face becomes pale and swollen. Then some
months after he leaves office, his whole family die.”
Again, in the same work : “ The ku of the people of Burmah
does not make use of medicine, but employs spirits. The spell is
handed down from generation to generation. Within forty-nine
days, they can bewitch a cow-hide to the size of a mustard seed.
They call this “cow-hide ku.” They can also bewitch an iron
ploughshare to the size of a mustard seed, and this they call
40 £ ^ ® chUan 45 - ^ ^ By gg A work of the
Ming period.
41 II W H Hr fiL JEiJl Jz- a work of the Sung period. It
treated of the geography and natural history of the southern provinces
41 it + & e- m a . Miscellaneous facts about South China.
The Black Magic in China Known as “ Ku ” 17
“ ploughshare ku.” The method of applying such ku is to conceal
the mustard seed under a finger-nail, and shoot it out toward the
victim. The poison then enters his stomach. When a Chinese was
affected by this poison, the Burmese would calculate the length of
his journey, and chant the incantation. The ku poison would
affect him on the calculated day. The victim would become thin,
his abdomen would swell, and he would die within a few months.
There was one man among the native chiefs called Yang Chao-pa,
of the district of T‘eng-yiieh, who could chant a counter spell which
would cause the ku poison to leave the Chinese and attack the
Burmese."
The Po yiieh feng t‘u chi 43 saj r s, “ The ku drugs are not of one
kind only, and the methods of using them differ. Ku sometimes
changes the five viscera into earth or wood. Sometimes ku is put
into chicken or duck meat. When the poison entered the stomach,
the chicken or duck would become alive again, with wings and feet.
It would compel the victim’s soul to become a slave in the house
of the sorcerer. When the Chinese caught such a sorcerer, they
buried him alive, or burnt him."
The Tien nan hsin yii 44 says, “The Pa-yi (Shan) of the moun-
tains (an aboriginal tribe in southwestern China) skin a cow and
bewitch its hide to the size of a mustard seed. Those traders who
entered the mountains without knowing this fact, sometimes had
love affairs with the native girls. When they had sold their mer-
chandise and were about to return home, the natives would invite
them to a feast. At the feast, they would promise the girls to
return. If they returned as they promised, they would be cured.
But if they did not return, the ku poison (administered at the
feast) became effective, and their bellies burst. The cow-hides came
out as if freshly skinned.”
The Ch‘ih ya 45 contains an interesting passage. “ On the fifth
day of the fifth month collect all those insects and worms that are
poisonous, and put them together in a vessel. Let them devour
each other, and the one finally remaining is called ku. There are
“ is m ± te-
“ |(j 3g|f fff- By jgjh An account of Yunnan, written m the
latter part of the 17th Cent.
15 l|j£- S' c ko an A description of the Miao country in
Southwest China, written about the first part of the 17th Cent. The
author was in the service of a native chieftaness for several years.
2
18
H. 7. Feng and J. K. Shryock
snake leu , lizard leu , and dung-beetle leu. The length of time re-
quired for the insects to devour each other will be proportionate to
the time required for the poisoned victim to die. When the leu has
been produced, the next step is to put it into food, which will then
become a hundred times more delicious. Those who eat this food
will die within a few days, or after a year of violent pains in the
heart and stomach. The victim’s property will imperceptibly be
removed to the house of the witch, and his spirit becomes her slave,
like the tiger which enslaves its chfang. Later the leu flies about
by night, appearing like a meteor. This variety is called ‘ flitting
leu.’ When the light grows stronger, a shadow like a living man’s
is produced. This is then called t'iao-sheng leu. When its shadow
grows stronger, the leu can have intercourse with women. Then it
is called chin-tsan leu. It can go wherever it desires, and spreads
calamity throughout the country-side. The more men it poisons,
the more efficient the leu becomes, and the richer grows the witch.
Among the aborigines, such evils are practiced openly. The native
officials called Ti-to became aware of this, and asked a magician
to dispel the enchantment. They caught the witch, and buried her
alive with her head above the ground. They poured wax on her
head and lighted it, in order to call back the poisoned spirits. The
ghosts did not dare to approach, and the Thing women cursed the
witch for them. This is the only way to put a witch to death, for
otherwise it is impossible to bring her under the law.
“ The complexion of those who have been poisoned by leu becomes
more than ordinarily beautiful. The Tien chi (probably leaders
among the women) look at them and smile. Then the victim must
kowtow to a ehieftaness and beg for the antidote. She will give
the victim a pill. If the victim takes it, he instantly vomits strange
things with human heads and the bodies of snakes, or having eight
feet and six wings. These creatures cannot be killed with the
sword, or burned. But if alum is placed on them, they die at once.
Otherwise they will return to their old place. I lived long among
these people, and know the prescription. Use san-ch‘i (literally,
three seven) powder and water-chestnuts to make pills. Add alum
and tea leaves, m ak i n g them into a powdeT. Take five chien with
spring water. If vomiting follows, then stop. An old prescrip-
tion says to take white J ang-ho and drink its juice, then sleep on
the roots, after calling aloud the name of the witch. But the
effect of this process is very slow.”
The Black Magic in China Known as “ Ku ”
19
The T‘ung ch‘i hsien chih 46 says, “ If the mat of the victim is
burned, he will see for himself who the sorcerer is. The ku is a
spirit, and goes out in the night to snatch the souls of the dead.
The houses of ku sorcerers are very clean, because the ghosts of
those who have been killed by the ku poison act as servants in them.
If a man sits in a posture resembling the written word “ woman ”
(i. e. cross-legged), the ku cannot harm him. Or if the witch is
enchanting a man, and he buries some of her food secretely under
the intersection of two streets, the ku spirit will turn on the witch
herself. And the ku spirit is filled with fear of the hedgehog. If
a hedgehog is brought to the house of a witch, the ku will be caught
immediately. All these prescriptions and methods of detecting ku
have been tested and shown to be effective, so I publish them here.”
The Tien nan hsin yii 47 in another passage remarks, “In
Szechuan there are many who keep ku, especially the chin-tsan,
which is the most malignant form. When the owner has become
rich, and has the means, he sends it away. . . . There is no chin-
tsan ku among the East and West Yi of Yunnan, but the mischief
caused by mice, snake, and food ku is comparatively greater. On
calm nights, when the clouds are heavy, there are things which
glitter like meteors, sweeping low over the roofs and flying quickly.
The long, luminous tail affects the eye and heart like cold flames.
I was very much astonished. When I asked my fellow officials, I
began to realize that the lights were due to ku, which had been let
out by the inhabitants. They also told me that the ku was apt to
eat children's brains. It also kidnapped spirits. In those families
which kept ku, the women were always debauched by the ku. If
the spirit were dissatisfied, it would turn on the keeper and eat his
children. Then it could not be sent away until the keeper had
become poor, and all his family had perished. For this reason peo-
ple are often afraid to keep it. Moreover, keeping it is prohibited
by law. So the practice is gradually dying out, but it still exists.
Those who still supply themselves with ku, do so secretely. In
Hsin-hsing and Chien-ch £ uan I tried several times to discover who
the sorcerers were, in order to put an end to such malevalent things.
Sometimes informants appeared, but no evidence could be secured.
vfc, chiian 2. By The author flourished under
K’ang-hsi, 1662-1723. A book about the aboriginal tribes of Southwest
China.
41 See note 44.
20
H. Y. Feng and J. K. Shryock
Hedgehogs are used in detecting Tcu , but without much effect. Dur-
ing the time that the suspects were under arrest, the flitting of the
leu was noticeably less.”
The Shu yi chi 48 says, “ When Sun Hsin-yai of Shih-men was
magistrate of K'ai-hua (in Yunnan), he was once sitting in the
hall when he noticed a kind of light flitting about like a meteor.
He asked his servants what it was. They said that it was the
flying leu, or snake hu. The family who serve the poisonous spirit
become rich, hut the women and girls of the family are debauched
by the snake. The snake goes out every night, flitting like a meteor.
When it comes to a less populous place, it comes down and eats the
brains of men. So the inhabitants of K‘ai-hua dare not sit outside
after dark, being afraid of the ku.”
The same work remarks again , 49 “The witch who cultivates ku
must first take an oath before the spirit that she is willing not to
be human in coming transmigrations, and will desire wealth in the
present life only. When the victims of the poison die, their prop-
erty is all removed (by supernatural power) to the house of the
witch, and the ghost of the victim becomes her slave. All the work,
ploughing, spinning and serving, is done by the enslaved spirit.
. . . Those who have been poisoned by ku may cure themselves by
jumping into a dung pool. Yu-ch‘i, Yung-an, Sha-hsien, and other
districts of Fukien all have ku.
“ Eecently magistrate Wang, of Yu-chfl, bought a load of melons.
He opened the melons the next day, and all contained ku insects.
He accused the man who had sold them, who in turn said that they
were bought in a certain shop. The magistrate arrested the shop-
keeper and questioned him. He said that he and his family had
never been sorcerers. On being beaten, he admitted that there was
a sorcerer who had a personal animosity against him. The sorcerer
was arrested, and did not deny the accusation. The magistrate had
him tortured, but he did not feel the pain. He was put in jail, but
escaped during the night. He was followed to his house, but the
whole family were gone.
“ In recent years there was a strange man who taught others a
method for curing ku. The man would go to the home of the
witch, carrying a chicken. The witch would understand, and give
48 *£ H !&’ chUan 2 -
19 II id.
The Black Magic in China Known as “ Ku ”
21
him a dose of medicine. All this must be done silently. The medi-
cine was a sure cure.
“ In Fukien, there is toad ku, somewhat similar to the chin-tsan
ku. Those who serve it are mostly covetous of the riches that
accompany it. People sometimes see large sums of money and silks
lying beside the road, and they understand that this is someone
sending away the ku. The ku spirit follows anyone who takes the
valuables. With the wealth, the sender leaves a book telling the
methods of serving the ku. The one who picks up the ku must
clean his house and worship the ku spirit only, forsaking all Bud-
dhist and Taoist deities. On the day that belongs to metal, the ku
spirit will excrete dung like that of white birds, which can be used
as poison. Poisons are laid only on the days keng-hsin and sheng-yu.
Those who are poisoned, first sneeze. Then the worms enter the
intestines and all the joints. The victim loses consciousness, and
his belly swells. When the worms have eaten his bones and entrails,
he dies.
“ The ku poison can be administered in drink as well as in food,
or sprinkled on the collars and clothes of the victims. It can be
laid on chickens, geese, fish, meat, fruits and vegetables. When a
living chicken has been bewitched by ku, its legs are eaten by
worms, but it can walk and cackle as usual. When meat is be-
witched, it will not become soft on being cooked. In all food that
has been bewitched, worms will germinate overnight. So the offi-
cials in this land will use food presented by others only when it
has stood overnight. Food which has no worms on the second day
is not bewitched. The spirits of those who have died of ku poison
become the slaves of the witch. The witches sacrifice eggs to the ku
spirit on the last night of the year. Husband and wife worship
with naked bodies, and thus square their accounts with the ku
spirit. When a servant of the Yamen is poisoned, the sorcerer
gives five ounces of silver to the ku; for an official, he gives fifty
ounces. Those who poison more people, acquire greater riches. If
a sorcerer becomes tired of the ku, he doubles the original amount
of money he picked up with the ku in order to send it away.” 50
Yuan Mei 31 says, “ Almost all families in Yunnan keep ku. It
E0 Ibid.
si ft" A - D " H15-97- A voluminous writer of the llanchu period.
This passage is taken from his If gg, ehiian 14. A book recording
supernatural events.
22
H. Y. Feng and J. K. Shryock
can excrete gold and silver, so they get rich because of it. They
let the ku out every night, and it darts about like lightning, spread-
ing eastward and westward. A great noise causes it to fall. It
may be a snake, toad, or any kind of insect or reptile. People con-
ceal their children because they are afraid of their being eaten hv
the ku. This ku is kept in a secret room, and is fed by the women.
The ku is injured if it is seen by men, because it is formed of pure
Yin (the female principle of the universe). That ku which devours
men will excrete gold, while that which devours women will excrete
silver. All this was told me by Hua Feng, the general formerly
commanding in Yunnan.”
Again, in the same work : 52 “ Chu Yi-jen was an expert callig-
raphist, and Ch'en Hsi-fang, the prefect of Ch‘ing-yiian in Kuang-
si, employed him as secretary. One hot summer day, the prefect
invited his colleagues to a feast. As they removed their hats on
sitting down to the table, they saw a large frog sitting on the top
of Chu’s head. They brushed it away, when the frog fell to the
ground and disappeared. They feasted until night, and again the
frog crept to the top of Chu’s head, without his being aware of it.
They drove it away from him once more, and it fell on the table,
spoilt the food, and disappeared.
“When Chu returned to his room, the top of his head itched.
The next day his hair fell out, and his head swelled like a red
tumour. Suddenly the swelling burst, and a frog stuck its head
out. Its forefeet rested on the top of Chu’s head, but the lower
part of the frog was in the tumour. He picked it with a needle,
but could not kill it. He tried to pull it out, but the pain was
unbearable. The physicians did not know how to cure it. Finally
an old gate-keeper said that it was the ku. On his advice they
pierced it with a gold hair-pin, and the frog died. Chu had no fur-
ther trouble, but the top of his skull sank down like a bowl.”
The Ch ien chi 53 says, “ The Miao women who kept ku got
plenty of money. When the ku becomes too strong, it must be sent
away. They do this sometimes as often as once a month. Those
ignorant of this often pick up money or packages along the moun-
tain paths. The ku follows them home. Wben it gets to the house,
it must remain there several days. If its wants are not satisfied,
“ Ibid., chiian 19. The passage is quoted by De Groot, p. 852.
” il E’ chtian 32 ‘ B J ^ BJ- Written about the beginning of
the 19th Cent. It describes the province of Kueichou.
The Black Magic in China Known as “ Ku ” 23
it will cause calamity. During the fall, the Miao women carry
pears in cloth hags, selling the pears to children. Many children
are poisoned by ku in this way. This was discovered hy some of
the children, and so now, when they buy pears, they ask, £ Do you
have ku poison in your pears? ’ If the reply is £ No/ the children
are safe. Among the women of the Shan, there are many who
keep ku.”
In the Fan fien lu tsung fan 54 is the following passage. “ Re-
cently a man named Chiang Ch £ an-p £ o reported that in the district
of Lu-an ku is used to kill people. The house of the witch is always
clean, since the work is done by the ku. Many inn-keepers serve
the ku. If an inn-keeper and his inn are exceptionally clean, those
who stay there overnight are poisoned. During one night, several
travellers simply disappeared, and all their money and baggage
came into the hands of the inn-keeper. There was no sign of the
corpses because they were entirely eaten by the ku worms.
££ Travellers in this district must know whether the inn contains
ku. They lay their luggage at random on the ground, close the
door, and stand outside for a while. If no servants appear, and yet
the baggage has [mysteriously] been arranged in order, they know
that this inn has ku. The traveller must not speak of this openly,
but pays his fee and goes to some other inn. Such travellers will
not be injured by the keeper of the inn, but will be regarded as
men with a great destiny.”
The Yi chien chih pu 55 says, ££ In the various districts of Fu-
kien, there are many ku poisoners, but they are especially prevalent
in the districts of Ku-t £ ien and Ch £ ang-ch £ i. There are four kinds,
snake ku, chin-tsan ku, centipede ku, and frog ku. All can change
their forms, and become invisible. All have males and females,
which copulate at fixed intervals, varying from two months to once
in two years. When the date arrives, the family which keeps the
ku prepares a ceremony to welcome their coming, and a basin of
water is placed before them. The male and female appear in the
water and copulate. Then the poison floats on the water, and can
be collected with a needle. A person must be poisoned on this date.
This is the breath of Yin and Yang (the male and female princi-
ples of the universe), and it is infused into people’s stomachs, sym-
bolic of the genital functions. It is not effective overnight. When
“ See note 36.
55 M S chUan 23 -
24
H. Y. Feng and J. K. SJiryoch
a guest arrives, even a relative, he is poisoned. The poison can
be placed in food, drink, or medicine, hut it cannot he put into hot
soup. When the medium is too hot, the poison is ineffective. If
no outsiders come in on that day, a member of the family is selected
to be poisoned. When the poison first enters the stomach the vic-
tim feels nothing, but gradually the leu worms generate and feed
on the victim’s blood. The worms grow, reproduce, and consume
the internal organs. The pain becomes unbearable, and can be
relieved only temporarily by drinking water boiled a hundred times.
As the pain becomes worse, the victims groan and scratch the bed.
When the victim is dying, several hundred worms come out of his
eyes, nose, ears and mouth. If they are dried, they can become
alive again, even after a long time. The ghost of the victim is con-
trolled by the ku, just as the tiger enslaves the ch‘ang, 5S and be-
comes a slave of the family. Such [an enslaved] spirit cannot be
reincarnated. Even if the corpse of the victim is cremated, the
heart and lungs will not burn, but will look like honeycombs.
“In 1175, the mother of Lin Sao-shuan of Ku-t £ ien (her sur-
name was Huang) lay dying, apparently from poison. The mem-
bers of the family said that if she had been poisoned by ku, and
her matrix was burned so that the light of the fire would shine
upon her, she would reveal who had poisoned her. They did this,
and she said that on a certain date, she had been poisoned while
eating by Huang Ku’s wife, Lai Shih. The demon was still in
their kitchen. Lin Sao-shuan reported this to the local magistrate,
and they went to the house of Huang Hu. In the kitchen they
found some pieces of silver, five-colored thread, jewels, and small
wooden figures on which were written five “ Yi ” and five “ Shun ”
(words meaning “ opposed ” and “ favorable ”). These were in a
box with seven holes. There were also two packs of needles, each
fifty in number, and eleven needles were without eyes. All these
were not things ordinarily used by people. The man was accused
before the magistrate. The magistrate arrested Huang Ku, who
feigned death in the court. When released, he became alive again,
as if helped by some supernatural power.
“ Yu Chhng of Kuei-chi was judge at that time, and when the
spirit of a person who has been eaten by a tiger. It urges
the tiger to murder others, in accordance with a common belief that the
soul of a murdered man may return to earth if a substitute is provided.
The Bloch Magic in China Known as “ Ku ” 25
prefect ordered him to examine the case, Huang Ku behaved in the
same way. Yu Ch'ing wa3 angry and afraid that the criminal
would escape the law, so he came down and cut off Huang’s head.
He put the head in a basket, and reported the act to the prefect.
The prefect reported the case to the emperor and a higher judge,
Hsieh Ssu-ehi, was asked to investigate the case.
“Hsieh accompanied the local officials to the house of Huang
Ku, where he saw centipedes of unusual size. Hsieh said, ‘ This is
the evidenced Lai Shih was arrested, and tried by Hsieh himself.
After a three days trial, the death penalty was passed upon her.
The figures (she confessed) were used in divination. If the re-
sponse was favorable, the guest was poisoned; if unfavorable, a
member of the family. The eyeless needles were used in gathering
the poison, and the number showed that eleven persons had been
poisoned. The ku likes to eat silk brocade, but if this could not be
procured, the five-colored threads were fed to it instead. The sil-
ver was to have been used in sending the ku away. . . . Huang
Km’s criminal acts really reached Heaven, and Yu Chfing obliter-
ated an evil-doer by killing him. Many scholars wrote poems in
praise of him.”
There are also a number of stories indicating that the virtuous
scholar need not fear ku. The Chinese have a proverb which says
that the heretic cannot overcome the righteous man. Among the
Chinese, the educated men have always been the backbone of the
moral system. It is natural to find that such men can repel evil
influences.
An interesting case is recorded in the Mu fu yen hsien lu of Pi
Chung-hsiin. 57 “ In Chih-chou there was a scholar named Tsou
Lang, having a chin-shih degree. He was poor, but of upright
character. One day he was about to start for a nearby town, when
on opening his door in the early morning, he saw lying beside it a
basket. He opened the basket, and found that it was filled with
silver wine-vessels and about a hundred ounces of silver. As it
was early morning, no one was watching him. The scholar took it
in and said to his wife, ‘These things came to me unexpectedly.
Are they given to me by Heaven ? ’ He had scarcely finished speak-
ing, when he saw on his left thigh something that wiggled in a
07 ^ {jgjj extracted in g£ (JjJ, ehtian 14. By Jj| pfj gjjj. A
lost work of the Sung period.
26
H. Y. Feng and J. K. Shryock
shimmer of gold. It was a caterpillar. He picked it off with his
hand. His hand was hardly turned, when it was back in its old
place. He trampled on the worm with his foot and smashed it,
but immediately it was again on his body. He threw it into water
and into fire, cut it with his sword, and hacked it with an axe,
without avail. It followed him everywhere, and never left him.
Tsou Lang finally asked the advice of his friends. Those who
knew about such matters told him,
“ ‘ You have been betrayed. This thing is the chin-tsan. Although
it is small, it will cause a great calamity. It can enter the belly
and ruin the intestines, after which it will come out unharmed/
"Tsou Lang became still more frightened, and told his friend
about finding the basket.
“ His friend said, * I knew that already. If you serve this ku,
you will become rich quickly. This worm eats four inches of Shu
satin every day. Collect its excretion, dry it, and grind it to powder.
Put a little in food and drink, and give these to others. Anyone
who takes it will surely be poisoned. The worm will get what it
desires, and it will remove the valuables of its victims to your
house/
“ Tsou Lang laughed and said, ‘ Am I the man to do this P ’
“ His friend said, ‘ I know surely that you do not desire to do it,
but what other thing can you do ? 5
“ Tsou Lang replied, ‘ I shall put this worm into the basket with
the other things and carry it away. Then there will be no further
trouble/
“ ‘ When a man serves this worm long enough,’ the friend said,
‘ he will become rich. Then he gives several times the amount he
originally found with the ku away. This is called finding the
chin-tsan a husband. Then the ku worm will go. But if you put
in only what you found with the worm, I am sure it will not go.
Now you are poor. How can you give several times more than you
found ? I am really concerned about you/
“ Tsou Lang looked at the sky, and replied, ‘ During my whole
life I have tried to be an upright man. I swore not to lose my
virtue. It is my misfortune that this thing has happened to me/
He went home and told his wife, saying, ‘ It is impossible for me
to serve the ku worm. I am too poor to send it away. The only
thing left for me is death. You had better prepare for the future/
“ He put the worm into his mouth and swallowed it. His family
The Black Magic in China Known as “ Ku ” 27
tried to stop him, but it was too late. His wife wept bitterly, think-
ing that he would surely die. But after a few days he had no fur-
ther trouble, eating and drinking as usual. A month passed, and
still he was not alfected. He finally died at a ripe age. And by
means of the silver he had found in the basket, he became well-
to-do. Is it that the sincerity of a man can overcome the most
poisonous influences ? 55
The following account is taken from the Yi chien san chih , 5S
“ In the district of Chlang-chou there was a brave scholar of strong
character. He often thought that while men were cowardly, there
was nothing worthy of being dreaded. He regretted that there
were no evil spirits to interfere with him and test his courage.
Once he went with a few friends to another village, and saw a parcel
covered with silk on the ground. The others dared not even look
at it, but he laughed and said, ‘ I am poor, why should I not
take it ? 5
“ He opened it before them, and found several rolls of silk, three
large pieces of silver, and a ku frog. He said to the frog, * You
may go where you wish; what I want is the silk and the silver/
He took the things home, where his family wept bitterly, thinking
that a calamity would soon occur. The scholar said to them, ‘ This
concerns me, not you/
"That night when he went to bed, there were two frogs, as big
as a year old baby, occupying his bed. He killed and ate them
both. His family again lamented, but he was delighted to get such
good meat. Then he proceeded to get drunk, fell asleep, and passed
a peaceful night. The next night there appeared more than ten
frogs, though smaller than before. Again he cooked and ate them.
The next night there were thirty. Night after night the frogs were
increasingly numerous, but their size became ever smaller. At last
the whole house was full of frogs, and it was impossible to eat them
all. He hired men to bury them in the wilderness. Yet his cour-
age was strengthened still more. Finally the thing stopped after
a month, so he laughed and said, ‘ Is the calamity caused by ku
no more than this ? 5 His wife asked him to buy hedgehogs as a
precaution but he said, ‘ I am the hedgehog ; what other do you
want? 5 His family was pacified, and nothing untoward happened.
So other people commended his behavior.”
chaan 4 ' work of the Sung period.
28
H. Y. Feng and J. K. Shryock
The Yi chien chih pu contains the following story : 59 “ In the
city of Ch‘uan-chou, there was a house tenanted hy several fami-
lies. One of the tenants was an under-official named Lin, a native
of Chhn. One night he found an old bamboo basket lying at the
street end of an alley. He kicked it playfully, and a small em-
broidered blanket fell out. On opening it, he discovered silver
vessels worth more than two hundred taels. As there was no one
around, he took the things home, thinking they had been given to
him by Heaven.
“All his neighbors were astonished by this, and the landlord
said, ‘ This is the Ming custom of serving the chin-tsan. The
original owner has become rich, and wanted to shift the calamity to
others. Since you have taken this bait, you must not regret it.
Today a demon will appear to you. You had better welcome and
serve it. Otherwise, great misfortune will happen to you.’ Lin
remained silent.
“ That night a snake, ten feet long, crawled in as if much pleased.
Lin caught it and said, ‘ Are you the demon of the chin-tsan ? I
cannot please you by poisoning people to enrich myself. If I do
not, I shall be eaten by you. There is only one death, but I would
rather eat you first.’ So he bit the snake, and swallowed it from
head to tail, not even leaving the bones. Then he called for wine,
and drank until he fell asleep. Next morning he rose up well and
unharmed, and later he became well-to-do. All admired his
courage.”
There is an amusing story of this sort in the Fan t c ien lu t‘an
tsung. 60 “An old man named Tseng, of Lung-yen in Fukien,
picked up a box from the road. On opening it, he found about
twenty ounces of silver. He took it home. During the night, a
handsome young man appeared to him, who tried to compel him
to burn incense and take an oath before Heaven that he would
administer poison to someone on a certain date. The old man real-
ized that it was the spirit of the chin-tsan. He refused the request,
and so the spirit continued to trouble him. Finally worn out, he
faithfully promised. On the fatal day, his son-in-law came. The
spirit secretely put the poison in the food, and when the son-in-law
returned home, he had violent pains in his abdomen. The old man
c “ I I £ i- cMian 23 -
40 See note 36.
The Black Magic in China Known as “ Ku ”
29
realized that the pains were due to the poison, and relieved him by
administering an antidote. The spirit was very angry, and com-
plained to Tseng.
“ The old man replied, £ He is my son-in-law, and my daughter
has no children. How can I poison him ? ”
“ The spirit came another time, and exacted a similar promise.
This time his sister’s son came. The nephew also became violently
ill on returning home, and the old man cured him. That night
the spirit greatly annoyed Tseng, and the whole family had no
sleep.
“ The old man Tseng said to the spirit, £ My sister was widowed
when she was very young, and this son is her only child. If he
dies from poison, my sister’s descendants will be cut off. More-
over, I am not willing to do such things. Let. us talk the matter
over now. Suppose I give you back the original amount of silver,
on condition that you go to someone else ? ’
“ ‘ Since I came to your house,’ replied the spirit, ‘ your farm
produce has increased every day, and you forget about this benefit.
You have not poisoned anyone yet, and you want me to go. You
must add at least thirty per cent interest to the sum you give me.
Otherwise I will not spare you.’
“ Then the old man took count, and calculated that he must give
the spirit two hundred and more ounces of silver. He got the silver
by selling his farm. Then he put it into the box, which he left
where he had originally found it.”
This ends the collection of illustrations of the practice of ku, a
collection covering the entire period of Chinese literature. A few
generalizations may be made in conclusion.
It must not be supposed, as De Groot implies, that all Chinese
believe in these things. On the contrary, the fact that it was
extremely difficult to make this collection of passages is in itself
evidence of the opposite. The physical symptoms ascribed to magi-
cal causes are not imaginary, and the diseases are very real. Ku
figures largely in Chinese medical works, and the term is still used
to describe certain conditions caused by internal parasites.
The idea of ku is very old. It probably originated in the idea
that disease was sometimes caused by black magic. The use of the
word as a divination symbol, and in the other ways mentioned in
classic literature, are probably' later accretions. The concept ap-
30
H. Y. Feng and J. K. Shryock
pears peculiar to Eastern Asia, at least in the method of producing
the ku by allowing poisonous things to eat each other. At the same
time, all sorts of extraneous notions have been added from time to
time.
The practice appears to be a connecting link between Chinese
culture and the cultures of Southeastern Asia. However, it was
early suppressed in China proper, and survived among the aborigi-
nal tribes of the south.
THE SECOND LITURGICAL POEM FROM RAS SHAMRA*
A Liturgy for the Festival of the God Alein
George A. Barton
University op Pennsylvania
Viholleaud has published three liturgical poems from Ras
Shainra. Of two of these the writer has already published trans-
lations — that of the first, in volume 52 of this Journal (pp. 221-
231), and, of the third in the Journal of Biblical Literature, vol.
LIII, 61-78. The translation of the second poem, which is here
presented, was completed more than a year ago, and has been
awaiting space in the pages of this Journal. The text was pub-
lished by Virolleaud in Syria, vol. XIII, pis. XXV-XXX. A
number of scholars have translated it in whole or in part, but the
only renderings which I have been able to consult extensively are
those of Virolleaud (loc. cit., pp. 113-162), Montgomery, in this
Journal, and Albright, in the Journal of the Palestine Oriental
Society (vol. XIV, 101-140). Since, in the meantime, Virolleaud
has published a brief poem which contains what was perhaps a
hymn sung in connection with the festival at which this liturgy
was recited, I have appended a transliteration and translation of
that also.
Transliterated Text
The sign “V is here transliterated d (Dad) and tX , ? (Za).
Column
14. bnh msb rbt
2
15. ’asrt ym msb
3
16. kit knyt
4. [ w ysh] sr
17. msb pdry bt a’r
5. [e’l a’bh e’~\l mlk
18. mzll tly bt rb
6. [ dyknnh ys]h a’s-
19. msrb ’arsy bt y'bdr
7. [rt w bnh e’]lt
20. 'ap msn rgmm
8. [ w sbrt a’ryh ]
21. ’argmk sskn m '
9. \ivn’ e'n bt]
22. mgn rbt asrt ym
10. \l FI km e’lm ]
23. mdz qnyt ’elm
11. w hzr
24. hyn ’ aly Imphm
12. O bn] a’isrt]
25. bd hss msbtm
13. msb ’el mzll
26. ysq ksp ysl-
* Continued from Volume 52 (1932).
31
32
George A. Barton
27. h hrs ysq lesp
28. I ’elprn hrs ysq
29. m l rbbt
30. ysq hym w tbsh
31. Id ’el dt rbtm
32. Id ’el nbt bksp
33. smrzt b dm hrs
34. k hs ’el nht
35. b zr ’hdm ’ed-
36. d prs’a b br
37. n'l ’el d qbl bl
38. ‘In yblhm hrs
39. slhn *el d ml’ a
40. mnm dbbm d-
41. msdt ’ars
42. s’ 'el dqt’ Ic’amr
43. shut khivt ym’an
44. dbh rumm Irbbt
ii, 1. ...6
2. . ,’abn
3. ’ahdt pilch
4. pile t'lt by( ?)m. . .
5. npynh mks bsrh
6. tmt’ mdh bym sn
7. npynh b nhrm
8. stt hptr Vest
9. hbrs l zr phmm
10. t'pp sr ’el-dp 'ed
11. tdzy bny bnot
12. b ns’ e 'nh u'lphn
13. hlk b' l ’astrt
14. kt'n hlk btlt
15. ’nt ydrq ybmt
16 bh znm
17 dn ksl
18 nh tl. .
19- %(?)
20. ’em dt zr
21. ts’e gh wish ’ek
22. mdy ’al ’ eyn b’l
23. ‘ek mdyt b’lt
24. 'nt mhsyh \bm\hs
25. bnyh [ ws]brt
?
26. ’aryy ksp brt
27. kt’n zl ksp wn
28. hrs smh rbt ’a [.sr^]
29. ym gm Idlmh p. . .
30. 'n mksr ‘apt. .
31. dgy rbt ’asr[t ym\
32. qh rst bdkt
33. rbt ’l ydm
34. b mdd 'el
35. b ym ’ el d[pd]
36. hr ‘el y
37. ’al’eyn
38. btlt
39. mh k
40. w’at
41. ’asr[i]
42. b’em
43. bll
44. mlt
45. dt
46. bt
47. gm
48. y'
iii, 1
2 dn
3 dd
4 nkb
5 ’al yns
6 ysdk
7 n dr dr
8 yk wrhd
9 y ’elm dmlk
10. y'n ’at' eyn b'l
•>
11. yqdd rkb ’rpt
The Second Liturgical Poem, from Ras Shamra
33
12 . m? ydd wyqlsn
13. yqm wywpsn btk
14. p[h]r bn ’elm stt
15. p. . . .b slhny qlt
16. bks ’estynh
17. bm sn dbhm sn ‘a b'l sis
18. rkb ‘rpt dbh
19. b st wdbh wdbh
20. dnt wdbh tdmm
21. ’amht kbh b st Itbt
22. wbh tdmmt ’amht
23. ’ahr mdy al’eyn b'l
24. mdyt btlt ' nt
25. tmgnn rbt ‘asrt ym
26. tdzyn qnyt ’ elm
27. wt'n rbt ’ asrt ym
28. ’ek tmgnn rbt
29. 'asrt ym tdzyn
30. qnyt ’elm mgntm
31. sr ’el dp'ed hm dztm
32. bny bnot wt'n
33. btlt 'nt nmgn
34. [<7] m rbt 'asrt ym
35. \_md]z qnyt ’elm
36 nmgn hwt
37 ’al’eyn b'l
38 rbt ’asrt ym
39 btlt 'nt
40 sm tsty
41 ' mrh sm
42 sht qs
43 rpn myn
44 * sm
45
46.
47.
48.
49.
50.
51.
3
52 7. ...
53 In
iv. 1. sr [ el-dpd w rbt ]
2. [Us] [ rt ym]
3. w’at [rbt]
4. ’ asrt ym
5. smd phl[st gpnm dt ]
6. ksp dt yrq nqbnm
7. 'bd gpn ’atnt(h) . . .
8. ysm' w’amr
9. mdl'r smd phi
10. st gpnm dt ksp
11. dt yrq nqbnm
12. 'bd gpn ‘atnth
13. yhbq qds w’amrr
14. ystn ’asrt Ibmt'r
15. lysmsmt bmt phi
16. qds yuhdm sb'r
17. ‘amrr kkbkb Ipnm
18. ‘asr btlt 'nt
19. wb'l tb' mrym spn
20. ’edk Ittn pnm
21. 'm 'el mbk nhrm
22. qrb 'apq thmtm
23. tgly sd el vrtb’e
24. qrs mlk ’ab snm
25. Ipn ’el thbr wtql
26. tsthwy wtkbdh
27. him ‘el kyphnh
28. yprq Isb wyshq
29. znh wykrkr Ihdm yspd
30. esb'th ys’e gh wysh
31. 'ek mzyt rbt ’asr[t y]m
32. ’ak ’ atwt qnyt ’e\lm]
33. rdb rdbt wtdfe(?)
34. hm dmio ' dm’et w's[ ’ ]
35. Ihm hm stym lh[mm]
36. bslhnt Ihm stym. . .
37. b krpnm yn bk hrg
38. dm 'sm hm yd ‘elm Ik
34
George A. Barton
39. yhssk ‘ahbt sr t’rrh
40. wt’n rbt 'asrt ym
41. thmk ’el hkm hkmt
42. ‘to ' Im hyt hzt
43. thmk mlkn ' al’eyn VI
44. spin w’en d’lnh
45. k Inyn q[ds]h [«]&[«]
? ?
46. k Inyn nbl ksh
?
47. w. . ysh sr ‘el ’abh
48. \_eX\ mlk dyknnh ysh
? ?
49. ’asrt wbnh ’ elt ivsbrt
50. a'ryh wn ‘e’n bt l b’l
51. km 'elm whzr k bn ’asrt
52. msb 'el mzll bnh
53. msb rbt ’asrt ym
54. msb kit knyt
55. msb pdry bt’ar
56. mzll tly btrb
57. msb ‘ars bt y'bdr
58. wy'n l tpn ’el dp'ed
59. p’bd ’an 'nn ‘asrt
60. p’bd ‘ank ’ahd ’els
61. hm ’amt asrt tlbn
62. Ibnt ybn bt Ib'l
v, 1. km ’elm whzr kbn ’asrt
2. wt'n rbt ’asrt ym
3. rbt ‘elm Ihkmt
4. sbt dqnk Itsrk
5. rhntt d . . I’ertk
6. wn’ap 'dn mtrh
7. b’l y’dn ’dn skt bgls
8. wtn qlh b'rpt
9. srh I’ars brqm
10. bt ’ arzm ykllnh
11. hm bt Ibnt y’msnh
12. Irgm I'al'eyn b’l
13. sh hrn b bhtk
14. 'sbt bqrb hklk
15. tblk drm m’ed ksp
16. gb'm mhmd hrs
17. yblk ‘edr el qsm
18. wbn bht ksp whrs
19. bht thrm 'eqn'em
20. smh btlt ‘nt id's
21. znm wtr ‘ars
22. ‘edk Ittn pnm
23. 'm b'l mrym spn
24. b’alp sd rbt kmn
25. shq btlt ‘nt ts’e
26. gh wtsh tbsr b’l
? ?
27. bsrtk yblt y’d
28. bt Ik km ’ahk whzr
29. km ’ aryk sh hrn
30. bbhtk 'sbt bqrb
31. hklk tblk drm
32. m’ed ksp gb’m mhmd
33. hrs wbn bht ksp
34. whrs bht thrm
35. ’eqn’em smh ’al’eyn
36. b’l sh hrn bbhth
37. 'sbt b qrb hklh
38. yblnn drm m’ed ksp
39. gb’m [m^hmd hrs
40. yblnn ‘edr ’el qsm
41. y’akl ksrwhss
42. wsb Imspr ktl’akn slmm
43. ’ahr msy ksr whss
44. st ’alp qdmh mr’a
45. wtk pnh t’db ks’e
46. wyssb lymn ’aXeyn
47. b’l 'd Ihm st ....
48. [w] y'n ’al[’yn b’l ]
49 b
50. [/i]s bhtm k[sp whrs]
51. hs rmm
52. hs bhtm tbn
53. hs trmmn h[ksp]
The Second Liturgical Poem from Ras Shamra
35
54. btk srrt spn
55. \ alp sd ’ ehd it
56. rbt kmn hkl
57. wy'n ksr w hss
58. [s]m‘ ’ al’eyn b’l
59. bn Irkb 'rpt
60. bl ’est * erbt bbh[t\
61. hln bqrb hklm
62. wy’n ’al’eyn b'l
63. ’al tst ’erbt b[bht\
64. [h]ln bqrb hlc[lm ]
i, 1. wy'n k[sr whs~\s
2. tsb b’l l[hwty~\
3. sn rgm fc[£r] whss
4. sV l a[l’ey\n b’l
5. bl ’ast ’e\rbt~\ bbhtm
6. hln bqr[b hkl]m
7. w’n ’al'[eyn\ b’l
8. ‘al tst ’ e[rbt ] bbhtm
9. hln bq[rb hH\lm
?
10. ‘al td..[’erbt ] 2 bt’ar
11. [Z]’o h[ln b qrb~\ bt rb
12. [stt hln b bt y]dd ’el ym
13. [w] ‘ten wpsm
14 wy’n Tcsr
15. [w]7iss t]sb b’l Ihwty
16. [wrscft] bhth tbbn
17. ’b ['ar.s] trmm hklh
18. y[Z]fc l Ibnn w'sh
19. l[sr~\yn mhmd ’arzh
20. h[lk l l]bnn w’sh
21. s[r~\yn mhmd ‘arzh
22. tst hst bbhtm
23. nb[l] ’at b hklm
24. hn \_y~\m wsn t’ekl
25. ‘est b bhtm nbl’am
26. b hklm sis krb’ym
27. t’ ekl hst b bhtm
28. nbl ‘at b hklm
29. hms ss ym t’ekl
30. hst b bhtm nbl'at
31. b hklm Im mk
32. b sb' y[m] td ‘est
33. b bhtm nbl'at b hklm
34. sb ksp l rqm hrs
35. nsb l Ibnt smh
36. ’al’eyn b ’ l[b]hty bnt
37. dt ksp hkl yu’tm
38. hrs 'bdt bht . . .1
39. y’db hd 'dbt bt
40. hklh tbh ‘alpm
41. s'en sql srm
42. r’e’a ‘el 'glm d . . . .
43. snt "emr qms [ll]‘em ( ?)
44. sh ‘ahh b bhth l ahh
45. b qrb hklh sh . . . .
46. sb’ m bn asrt. . .
47. spq ‘elm krm y[m
48. spq ‘elht hprt [ym
49. spq ’elm ‘alpm y[m
50. spq ‘elht ’arht ym
51. spq ’elm khsm y[m
52. spq ‘elht ks’at [ym
53. spq ’elm rhbt [ym
54. spq ‘elht dkrt [ym
55. ’d Ihm sty ’elm
56. wpq mrdsm sd
57. bhrb mlht qs. . . .
58. ’e tsty krpnm yn
yii, 1 qn’e..
2 ’al’eyn b’l
3. p tk mdd ‘el
4. y Izr qdqdh
5. ’el [ys~\hq bdr
6. km y[shq ~\ . . . ‘elm bspn
7. 'ur l 'rm
8. sb Ipb. . ■ .pdrm
9. ss l ssm ’ahd V
10. sb'm sb' pdr
36
George A. Barton
11. smnyrn VI m
12. ts'm VI mr
13. b [al'eyn] VI bqrb
14. bt wy'n ’al’eyn
15. VI ’ astm Jcsr bn
16. ym Jcsr bnm ‘dt
17. ypth hln b bhtm
18. ’arbt bqrb hlcl-
19. m w[yp]th bdqt ‘arpt
20. ‘Ip. . . . Jcsr w Jess
21. shlc Jcsr w Jess
22. ys'e gh wysh
23. Irgmt Uc l ‘al ‘e-
24. yn VI tsbn b‘1
25. I Jiwty ypth Ji-
26. In b bhtm ’erbt
27. bqrb hJclm [yp]th
28. VI b dqt 'rpt
29. qlh qds b . . . .in
30. ysny VI spn. . . .pth
?
31. qlh gifs] ykr ’ars
32 tdrm ‘ahsn
33. rtq
34. qdm ym b mt ’ a\JL’eyn\
? ?
35. tttn ’eb b ms’ a ‘ehd
36. y’rm sn’u hd gpt
37. sr wy'n ’al’eyn
38. VI ’eb hdt Im ths
39. Im ths nsq dmm
40. 'n VI qdm ydh
41. Jc tds ’arz b ymnh
42. bJem ysb VI l bhth
43. ‘amlJc ‘ablm lie
44. ‘ars drJct ystTcn
45. dll ’al ’el ’ ar Ibn
46. ‘elm mt 'dd lydd
47. ’el zzr yqrn mt
48. b npsh ystrn ydd
49. b gngnh ’ aJidy dym-
50. lie 'l ’elm lymr’a
51. ‘elm w nsm dysb
52. \y\hmlt ’ars gm Id-
?
53. [ rjh VI Jcysh ‘n
54. [gpn\ w’agr b[n~\dlmt
55. ['mm y]m bn zlmt r-
56. [mt pr't~\ ‘ebr mnt
57. shrrm hblt rich rpt
58 [ rpt f] Jit
59. b [m'srm
60. f/i] p
viii, 1. ’e[hdJc ’al ttn pnm
2. 'm dr trdzz
3. ‘m dr srmg
4. 'm tlm dsr ‘ars
5. s’ a hr dr 'l ydm
6. hlb Izr rhtm
7. wrd bt hpst
8. ’ars tspr by
9. rdm 'ars
10. ’edle ’al ttn
11. pnm tic qrth
12. hmry mJc Jcsu’
13. sbth hh ‘ars
14. nhlth wndr
15. ' tn ’elm 'al
16. tqrb Ibn ’elm
17. mt ’al y'bdJcm
18. Je ‘emr bph
7
19. Jc ll’e b sbrn
20. qnh tht’an
21. nrt ’elm sps
22. shrrt I’a
23. smm b yd md-
24. d ’elm mt b’a-
25. Ip sd rbt Jc-
26. mn hr mt
27. hbr wql
The Second Liturgical Poem from Ras Shamra
37
28.
tsthwy wTc-
40.
y
29.
bd hwt wrgrrt
41.
Tcb
30.
Ibn ‘ elm mt
42.
31.
sny l ydd
43.
t
32.
' el dzr thm
44.
33.
’ al’eyn VI
45.
- a yd
34.
. . . . -t ‘cd‘eu\n\
r- 46 -
k
35.
rb . . . . bht ybnt
47.
[gyn] w-agr
36.
48.
t
37.
y
(The
rest is broken away)
38.
’ahy
Colophon
39.
Translation
1.
2.
3.
4.
Then cried the bull of
5.
El to his father.
El, the king.
6.
that he would establish him. He cried to Ashe-
7.
rat and her sons, the goddess
8. and the company of her companions,
9. “ Woe to us ! Baal has
10. no house like the gods,
11. nor defence
12. like the son of Asherat,
13. the dwelling of El, the covered-place
14. of his son, the dwelling of the Lady
15. Asherat of the sea, the dwelling
16. of the Bride, Kanyat,
17. the dwelling of my city, Beth-Ar,
18. the covered-place of my wealth, Beth-Bab,
19. the dwelling of the land, Beth-Yabdar.”
20. Also I am repeating the cries;
21. I cry to thee, “ Establish (it) in spite of
22. the madness of the Lady Asherat of the sea,
23. the hostility ( ?) of the mistress of the gods.
24. Hayn going up to the bellows,
38
George A. Barton
25. in his hand grasping the tongs,
26. shall cast silver, shall send
27. forth gold; he shall cast silver
28. by thousands ; gold he shall cast
29. by tens of thousands;
30. he shall cast ichym and tbsh.
31. Humble her, 0 El, who is their lady;
32. humble her, 0 El, who shines with silver,
33. who quarries in the mine gold
34. like khesh. 0 El, thou hast rested
35. with the flint-knife on the footstool Eded-
36. parsha in the pit,
37. Naal-El, which yields not
38. to us. There flows for them the gold
39. of the table of El, which fills
40. the conceivable parts of the
41. foundations of the earth.
42. Scatter, 0 El, that which is mined according to the saying
43. of Saknat-Kakhwat, ‘ the sandy land
44. prepares wild desired-things by the myriad.’ ”
ii> 1
2
3. She took her spindle
4. the exalted spindle on the (first) day.
5. Her banishment was the binding (?) of her flesh.
6. She removed her garment on the second day.
7. Her banishment was by the rivers.
8. She placed a khptr- offering on the fire,
9. a khbrs , for kindling coals;
10. she abstained from the bull of El-Deped ;
11. she besought (?) the creator of creatures (?)
12. for the removal of her affliction. Then she forgot
13. the coming of Baal and Ashtart,
14. when she spied the coming of the virgin
15. Anat. (Her) sister was hastening
16 with her(?) persons (?)
17 stupid ( ?)
18
19
The Second Liturgical Poem from Ras Shamra
39
20. man
21. She was lifting up her voice and crying, “ How
22. is coming Alein Baal?
23. How is coming the Lady
24. Anat? Smite her with smiting,
25. her sons (and) the company (?)
26. of her companions silver bright.”
27 . Then she answered, “ Come into being, 0 silver, and
(come down?)
28. 0 gold, that make rich the Lady Asherat
29. of the sea. Also her image
30. Answer, 0 thou who doest correctly; may I take —
possession — of ( ?)
31. the fishes of the Lady Asherat of the sea?”
32. “ Take the net Bedket
33. 0 Lady, upon (thy) hands
34. with the beloved of El
35. in the sea of El-Deped.
36. The mountain of El
37. Alein
38. the Virgin (Anat)
39. What
40. and
41. Asherat
42. in
43. Hot for
44
45
46
47. also
48
(About six lines are broken away.)
1
2
3
4
5 “ Let him not lament (?)
6 shall cleave to ( ?)
7 generation (to) generation.
40
George A. Barton
8 and Baehad
9. (and the son)s of the gods who rule.”
10 Alein Baal
11. the of Yadad
10 Alein Baal,
11 he who rides on the clouds,
12. the of Yadad, and he arose,
13. he stood, he spoke in the midst
14. of the assembly of the gods : “ I will set
15. the assembly at my tables, I will hasten,
16. from the cup I will drink it;
17. on them double the sacrifices. Sharpen ( ?) the three-
edged (dagger)
18. of the Cloud-rider. Slay
19. with the Lady and slay and slay
20. mightily and slay. There shall groan
21. the maid-servants when on it with the lady they look;
22. then at it (shall be) the groanings of the maid-servants.”
23. After Alein, the Lord, came
24. there came the virgin Anat.
25. she spoke roughly to Asherat of the sea,
26. she upbraided ( ?) the mistress of the gods.
27. Then answered the lady Asherat of the sea,
28. “ How dost thou speak roughly to Lady
29. Asherat of the sea, thou doest upbraid ( ?)
30. the Mistress of the gods? You have spoken roughly
31. to the bull of El-Deped; behold you have upbraided ( ?)
32. the begetter of creatures.” Then answered
33. the virgin Anat: "Let us speak roughly
34. even to the lady Asherat of the sea,
35. let us upbraid ( ?) the mistress of the gods.
36 let us treat roughly the passionate.
37 Alein the lord,
38 the lady Asherat of the sea,
39 the virgin Anat,
40 there shalt thou drink,
41 be merry there.”
42 she cried “ Cut off
43 our flock, kinds
44 trees ”
The Second Liturgical Poem from Ras Shamra
41
45
46
47
48
49
50
51 unto us
52
, 1. Bull (of El-Deped and the lady)
2. Asher at of the sea.
3. And thou (the lady
4. Asherat of the sea
5. “ harness the stallion, make stirrups (?) of
6. silver (and) of gold of the mines;
7. make a stirrup ( ?) (for) her she-asses:
8. Qadesh and Amurru shall hear.
9. Saddle the colt, harness the stallion,
10. make stirrups (?) of silver, (and)
11. of gold of the mines;
12. make a stirrup (for) her she asses.
13. Qadesh and Amurru shall prepare to depart,
14. they shall place Asherat on the back of the colt,
15. on the decorations on the back of the stallion,
16. Qadesh will take them behind (?)
17. Amurru, like a star, before
18. to the shrine of the virgin Anat
19. and Baal. Thou shalt seek the height of the north ;
20. Behold thou shalt set thy face
21. toward El at the source of the rivers
22. in the midst of the valley of the two abysses.
23. Thou shalt discover the field of El and shalt enter
24. the palace of the king, the possessor of years.
25. Before El thou shalt perform an act of purification, thou
shalt hasten,
26. thou shalt prostrate thyself, and shalt honor him.
27. Well ! El, when he addresses her,
28. will put away grief and laugh.
29. His feet on the footstool he shall place, he shall twirl
30. his fingers, he shall lift up his voice and cry
42
George A. Barton
31. ' How has the lady Asherat of the sea come?
32. How has the mistress of the gods arrived?
33. She is very hungry ( ?) and thirsty.
34. Them indeed bring near and make
35. bread; make them drink; make them eat
36. at the tables. Feed and make them drink
37. from the pots ; wine is with thee ; bring out
38. blood of trees. Lo, the hand of the gods is with thee ;
39. They shall ward off from thee the love of the hull
(which) impels thee.’”
40. Then answered the lady Asherat of the sea,
41. “Thou art wise, 0 El; thou art very wise!
42. From of old thou hast lived ; thou hast had thy way ;
43. Thou art equal to our king, Alein, the lord,
44. our judge, and there is none who is above him.
45. Like our lodgments let us build ( ?) his sanctuary ( ?) ;
46. like our lodgments 1 let us mix his cup.”
47. Then . . . the bull of El his father will cry
48. the king who wilt establish him, there will cry
49. Asherat and her sons, the goddess and the company
50. of her companions, ‘ Woe to us.’ Baal has no house
51. like the gods or defense like the son of Asherat,
52. the dwelling of El, the praying-place of his son,
53. the dwelling of the lady Asherat of the sea,
54. the dwelling of the Bride, Kanyat,
55. the dwelling of my city, Beth-Ar,
56. the praying-place of my wealth, Betb-Bab,
57. the dwelling of my land, Beth-Yabdar.”
58. Then answered El-Deped in friendliness,
59. “ Even I am going to accomplish the humiliation of
Asherat :
60. Even I will work ; alone I will outwit
61. them. The maid Asherat shall bum bricks,
62. with bricks shall be built a house for Baal
v, 1. like the gods and a walled-enclosure like the son of
Asherat.”
2. Then answered the lady Asherat of the sea,
3. the lady of the gods, “ Verily thou art wise ;
1 Meaning “ as in our lodgments,” i. e., sanctuaries.
The Second Liturgical Poem from Ras Shamra
43
4. let the whiteness of thy heard admonish thee !
5. The compassions which (are) at thy breast
6. when the time drinks its fill of its rain.
7. Baal will appoint the time. Thou dwellest in the high-
lands,
8. and wilt utter (thy) voice in the clouds,
9. to flash lightnings upon the earth.
10. A house of cedars he shall complete for himself:
11. truly a house of bricks he will construct for himself.
12. Call indeed on Alein Baal,
13. cry, * a caravan in thy wonderful structure !
14. a troop in the midst of thy temple !
15. It shall bring for thee as mountains much silver,
16. as hills, choice gold.
17. The glory of El-Qesem shall be brought to thee.
18. Then build a wonderful structure of silver and gold —
19. a wonderful structure of pure things ! ’ I shall be
jealous of them !
20. Rejoice, 0 virgin Anat ! Thou shalt trample upon
21. doubts and behold the earth.
22. Behold thou shalt set thy face
23. toward Baal at the height of the north
24. in Alp-shad of Rabbath-Kamon.
25. With laughter shall the virgin Anat lift up
26. her voice and cry; she shall announce the good news to
Baal,
27. * I announce good news to thee; I bring the knowl-
edge (?)
28. thou shalt have a house like thy brother ; and a walled-
enclosure
29. like thy companions. Cry, ‘ A caravan
30. in thy wonderful structure ! a troop in the midst
31. of thy temple ! It shall bring thee as mountains
32. much silver; as hills choice
33. gold! Then build a wonderful structure of silver
34. and gold — a structure of pure things.
35. I shall be jealous of them ! ’ Alein Baal will rejoice;
36. he will call a caravan into his wonderful structure,
37. a troop into the midst of his temple;
38. they shall bring us like mountains much silver :
44 George A. Barton
39. as hills, fine gold
40. They shall bring us the glory of El-Qesem.
41. Kasher-w-Khasis shall feed.”
42. Then return to the narrative : “ When thou shalt send
as messengers brave men.”
43. After the coming of Kasher-w-Khasis,
44. place an ox before him, a fat one,
45. and directly in front of it thou shalt place a chair,
46. and he shall be made to sit on the right of Alein
47. Baal while eating and drinking.
48. Then Alein Baal shall answer,
49. “(I would build a temple for myself).
50. Haste! silver and gold (for) wonderful structures!
51. Haste ! Heap up the silver (and gold) !
52. Haste! Thou shalt build (a temple) !
53. Haste! Thou shalt heap up (the silver and gold).
54. Thy house is (in) the heights of the north;
55. Alp-shad is a house;
56. Babbath-Kamon is a temple.”
57. Then Kasher-w-Khasis answered,
58. “ Listen, 0 Alein Baal,
59. son of the Eider on the clouds,
60. surely I wiE place a lattice-window in the wonderful
structure,
61. a window in the midst of the temple.”
62. Then answered Alein Baal,
63. “ Do not put a lattice-window in the wonderful structure,
64. a window in the midst of the temple.”
vi, 1. Then answered Kasher-w-Khasis,
2. “ Thou wilt change, 0 Baal, so as to desire it.”
3. Kasher-w-Khasis repeated the cry,
4. “ Listen, 0 Alein Baal,
5. surely I wiE set a lattice-window in the wonderful
structures,
6. a window in the midst of the temple.”
7. Then answered Alein Baal,
8. “Do not put a lattice-window in the wonderful structure,
9. a window in the midst of the palace.
The Second Liturgical Poem from Eas Shamra
45
10. Do not plan (?) a lattice-window in Beth-Ar,
11. nor window in the midst of Beth-Rab.
12. Thou didst set a window in the house of Yadad, god of
the sea
13. (and there was) distress and faintings.”
14 Then answered Kasher-
15. w-Khasis, “ Thou wilt change, 0 Baal, so as to desire it.
16. (The foundations) of its wonderful structure thou shalt
lay
17. (in the earth), thou shalt raise up its temple,
18. thou shalt go to Lebanon and its wood,
19. to Sirion ( ?) famed for its cedars.
20. Go to Lebanon and its wood,
21. Sirion, famed for its cedars.
22. Thou shalt establish the ritual in the wonderful struc-
ture,
23. the sacrifices in the temple.
24. This day and the second thou shalt eat
25. burnt-offerings in the wonderful structure, sacrifices
26. in the temple. The third, the fourth
27. thou shalt eat what is placed in the wonderful structure,
28. the sacrifices in the temple.
29. the fifth, the sixth day thou shalt eat
30. what is set in the wonderful structure, the sacrifices
31. in the temple
32. On the seventh day thou shalt bring to an end the fire-
offering
33. in the wonderful structure, the sacrifices in the temple.
34. Turn the silver into curtains; the gold
35. let us turn into bricks. Rejoice,
36. 0 Alein Baal! A wonderful structure thou shalt build
37. of silver; a temple shall be made perfect
38. with gold. Thou shalt make my wonderful structure
39. This excellence shall be stainless, the of the
house (?)
40. of its palace. Slaughter oxen, (slay?)
41. sheep, bring up bullocks,
42. the shepherding of El, calves of
43. a year, a lamb. Strangle kids.
46
George A. Barton
44. Call, 0 Ms brother, in his wonderful structure to Ms
brother,
45. in the midst of his temple lift up (your voices to)
46. the seven sons of Asherat;
47. ‘ Offer the gods lambs a day;
48. offer the goddesses ewe-lambs (?) a day;
49. offer the gods oxen a day;
50. offer the goddesses wild cows a day;
51. offer the gods as it were shame for a day;
52. offer the goddesses as it were union for a day:
53. offer the gods wombs for a day:
54. offer the goddesses phalli for a day.
55. While the gods are eating and drinking (say)
56. Assist, 0 ye who the fields ;
57. in drought cut-off ( ?) barrenness,
58. so ye shall drink wine in pots.”
(At least six lines are broken away.)
Vll,
1. “ reeds ( ?)
2 Alein Baal
3. and the measure of El
4. shall to shave (?) his crown.
5. El will laugh at the loss
6. as the gods (laughed) in the north.
7. Awake to the of the colts;
8. turn to the of the cities ;
9. six to sixty take (for) a city;
10. seventy seven for a town;
11. eighty, 0 Baal,
12. ninety, 0 Baal,
13. with Alein Baal in the midst of
14. the house.” Then answered Alein
15. Baal, “ I will establish them, 0 Kasher, son of
16. the sea. 0 Kasher, build those (things which) thou
hast appointed.
17. Let a window be opened in the wonderful structure;
18. a lattice-window in the midst of the temple,
19. and let it be opened (?) for the examination (?) of the
clouds
20. in the presence-of Kasher-w-Khasis.”
21. Kasher-w-Khasis laughed;
The Second Liturgical Poem from Ras Shamra 47
22. he lifted up his voice and uttered
23. a cry : “ Come, 0 Alein
24. Baal, thou art turning, 0 Baal,
25. to desire it. A window shall be
26. opened in the wonderful structure, a lattice-window
27. in the midst of the temple. It shall be opened,
28. 0 Baal for the examination ( ?) of the clouds.
29. (When) his holy voice shall sound in
30. Baal of the north will answer his call ( ?),
31. his holy voice will descend to the earth,
32. “ the I will make small (?).
33. shut
34. before the day when Alein (?) dies
35. thou shalt fasten up a green shoot, found as a possession
36. of the forests, hated of Hadad of Caelo-
37. Syria. Then answered Alein
38. Baal, “ This green shoot do not damage !
39. Do not damage ! ” Let us recite our song :
40. “ The eye of Baal is before his hand,
41. as the bough ( ?) of the cedar is in his right hand,
42. even as Baal dwells in his beautiful structure.
43. I will be king; I will subdue for thee
44. the earth; routes shall be established;
45. the weak I will not send as messengers to the son
46. of the gods, Moth, to be counted to Yadad,
47. El-Dzer. Moth shall make a hollow
48. for himself; he shall hide Yadad
49. in his covert. I rejoice that he (Alein) will be
50. king over the gods. Surely he will be lord over
51. gods and men, that they may dwell
52. in the tents of the land. Also at his
53. mountain, 0 Baal, when he cries, (answer.)
54. Gepen-w-Agar, son of Zalmaweth,
55. ye people of . ■ • Yam 1 son of Zalmaweth
56. thou pride of Pharaoh, the mighty one of Mont,
57. ye parched-ones, destroyed by him who rides the clouds.
kq clouds, thou who
art humbled
59. by
60. . .
ye refugees,
48
George A. Barton
viii, 1. “ Then do not set thy face
2. against Mount Taradzaz,
3. against Mount Sharmag,
4. against the cleft of Deser, the land,
5. the sheep of Mount Al-Yadaim,
6. the covering of the sharp rock of Rakhitim.
7. Come down to the house ! The festivals (?)
8. of the land thou shalt number with me !
9. Make the earth green !
10. Then do not turn (away)
11. thy face! Smite his (Moth’s) city!
12. Put far from thyself the throne
13. of his habitation, the filth of the land
14. is its inheritance, and guard
15. the prison ( ?) of the gods. Do not
16. draw near to the son of the gods,
17. Moth; do not let him make you
18. like a lamb in his mouth,
19. like a kid in the crushing (?) power (?)
20. of his stroke. Thou shalt avoid (it).”
21. O light of the gods, Shepesh,
22. thou burning one, un-
23. appalled by the hand of the measur-
24. er of the gods. Moth, in Alp-
25. Shad, of Rabbath-Ka-
26. mon, by the sickle of Moth,
27. the destroyer and curser.
28. Thou shalt worship and give
29. honor, to desire and cry
30. to the son of the gods. Moth,
31. the second to Yadad,
32. the god of Dezer, “ Thou shalt long for
33. Alein Baal ! ”
34. “Mayest thou ,0 Alein (?) in the
35. midst of the wonderful structure thou hast built ” . . .
36
37 my
38 my brethren,
39 my brethren,
40 my
The Second Liturgical Poem from Bas Shamra 49
41 hon-
42. or ( ?) I have cried ( ?),
43 I have (?)
44 of the gods,
45 Yad-
46. ad(?) thy ( ?)
47 Gepen-w-Agar. the
hire (?)
48
(the rest is broken away.)
Colophon
Naqniad, king of Ugarit.
APPENDIX
The Death and Burial op Alein
Transliteration 1
Obverse Reverse
1. I VI 39 t qb'et
2. dr b 'aftM yd[y ps]ltm 40 r ’enst
[6 y'r ] 2 41 t'u tstql
3. \jj\hdy Ihm w 42. . . .t try ’ap Itlhm
4. qn sr*h [y] hrs km gn 43. Ihm trmmt list
5. ’aplb k ' mq [y]sls b mt 44. yn tdzyt sps
6. b'l mt my I’em bn dgn 45. rp’em thtk
7. my hmlt ‘asr b'l nrd 46. sps thtk elnym
8. b ’ars ’ mh trd nrt 47. 'dk ‘elm hn mtm
9. ’elm sps 'd tsb' bk 48. 'dk ksrm hbrk
10. tst k yn ’udm't gm 49. whss dttk
11. tsh l nrt ’elm sps 50. b ym ’ars wtnn
12. 'msm' ly ’al’eyn b'l 51. ksr whss yd
13. tsm' nrt ’elm sps 52. ytr ksr whss
14. ts’u ’ai'eyn b'l l ktp 53. spr ‘elmlk sbny
15. 'nt k tsth ts'lynh 54. Imd atn prln rb
16. b srrt sp'n tbkynh 55. khnm rb nqdn
'The text is published in Syria, XV (1934), 227.
•The emendations of the text in lines 1-5 are based on a duplicate
published in transliteration by Virolleaud in Syria, XV, 230.
4
50
George A. Barton
Obverse
17. wtqbrnh tstnn b hrt
18. ’elm ’ars ttbh sb'm
19. r’umm 1c gmn ’al’eyn
20. [5]'Z ttbh sb'm ’ alpm
21. [h g\mn ’al’eyn b'l
22. [tt^bh sb’m s’en
23. \k g\mn ’al’eyn b'l
24. [ttb]h sb’m ‘aylm
25. [k gmn ] ’al’eyn b‘l
26. [ttbh s]b'm y'lm
27. [fc gmn ’al’^eyn b'l
28. [ttbh sb'm\ hmrm
29. [k gmn ’al'eyn b'l ]
[the rest broken away]
Translation
1. For Baal
2. the mountain with stone shall resound. You have cut a palm-
shoot in the wood ;
3. it shall guide to escape and the beard shall triple.
4. The fibre of its shoot shall take root like the garden
5. of Aplab ; like the valley it shall sink deep root with Moth.
6. Baal is dead ! Who is the avenger of the son of Dagan ?
7. Who are the mourners of Asher-Baal? Let us go down
8. into the earth with him ! There shall go down the light
9. of the gods, Shephesh, until she is sated with weeping.
10. Thou shalt drink like wine even tears; also
11. thou shalt cry to the light of the gods, Shephesh,
12. “ Bestore to health for me Alein Baal ! ”
13. The light of the gods, Shephesh, shall hearken;
14. she shall raise up Alein Baal by the shoulder.
15. Anat when she shall raise him up, shall cause him to ascend
16. at the parched-ground of Sap'an, she shall bewail him
17. and bury him and shall sprinkle herself with ashes
18. of the weeds of the earth. She shall sacrifice seventy
19. wild oxen similar to the violation of Alein
20. Baal ; she shall sacrifice seventy oxen
21. similar to the violation of Alein Baal;
22. she shall sacrifice seventy sheep
Reverse
56. s'y nqmd mile ‘ugrt
57. ’adn yrgb b'l srmn
The Second Liturgical Poem from Bas Shamra
51
23. similar to the violation of Alien Baal;
24. she shall sacrifice seventy stags
25. similar to the violation of Alein Baal;
26. she shall sacrifice seventy goats
27. similar to the violation of Alein Baal ;
28. she shall sacrifice seventy asses
29. similar to the violation of Alein Baal.
Eeverse
40 mankind ( ?)
41 thou shalt weigh for thyself;
42 tender (?), also thou shalt eat
43. the bread of restoration, thou shalt drink
44. the wine of exhileration ( ?). Shephesh
45. shall divide the rephaim ;
46. Shephesh shall divide the elonim (terebinths?) ;
47. along with thee are the gods; at rest are the dead;
48. along with thee are the ritually pure — thy company,
49. and forethought is thy knowledge.
50. In the sea are creatures and sea-monsters.
51. Kasher-w-Khasis is power;
52. abundance is Kasher-w-Khasis.
53. Scribe, El-melek, the Shibonite,
54. pupil of Ethan-Parlan, chief of
55. the priests, the shepherds,
56. the Sa'ite. Naqmad, king of Ugarit,
57. the lord, honors Baal-Sharmon.
Philological Notes
Column i.
Lines 4-12 are supplied from col. iv, 47-51.
10. b'l (Baal) : here, as usually, though not always, in these poems,
an epithet of Alein.
11. her: cf. the Arabic hazr, “defence”.
13. mzll: “covered-place”, from ZLL.
16. kit: “bride ”, an epithet; here used as the name of a goddess
possibly Asherat.
knyt: analogy and the parallelism indicate that here this is
the name of a temple.
52
George A. Barton
17. pdry ; pdr is a Hurrian word for “city”; cf. Virolleaud in
Syria, XIII, 116 and Albright, Bulletin of the American
Schools of Oriental Research, No. 50 (April, 1933), p. 14.
18. tly: cf. the Arabic taul, “wealth”, “bounty”.
21. Sskn: shaphel imperative. The verb appears in Akkadian as
Sakanu : “ set ”, “ establish ”.
m' : ordinarily means “ with ”, but in Semitic, as every scholar
knows, prepositions are employed in various meanings. The
context here requires the meaning “ against ” or “ in spite of ”.
22. mgn: cf. the Arabic migann, “ madness ”.
mdz: perhaps for mzz; no such word as mdz appears to be
known. For mzz cf. Lisan al- 'Arab, IX, 344.
qnyt; Virolleaud and Albright are, I think, both mistaken in
taking this word to mean “ creatrix ”, It is from the root
QNY, which means “ own ”, “ possess ” and is used here as
a parallel to ba'alat. qnyt' elm. is an exact parallel to the
Akkadian bSlit ilani, “ lady of the gods ” or “ mistress of the
gods”. The phrase adduced in Gen. 14: 19 means, “owner
of heaven and earth ”, in spite of the fact that Holzinger,
Skinner, and J. M. P. Smith have translated it “ creator ”.
Holzinger cites three other passages in which he claims that
QNY is equal to BR\ Of these that in Deut. 32 : 6 is shown
by the parallelism not to bear the meaning Holzinger assigns
to it. Montgomery has rightly interpreted qnyt.
24. hyn: “ Hayn ”, the Hephaestos of the Has Shamra pantheon.
Perhaps a Hurrian god.
28. ’ elpm : employed as a numeral as in Hebrew.
29. rbbt: a numerical usage well known in Hebrew.
30. hym w ibsh : apparently two metals as Virolleaud has con-
jectured.
31. kt : imperative of KTT; cf. the Arabic katt, “humble”.
dt rbtm: clearly a reference to Asherat.
33. Smrzt: a shaphel perfect from the root MRZ; cf. the Arabic
maraza, “ cut ”. Literally it means “ she has cut ”.
dm : the word is evidently connected with the root DMM, which
has in Arabic various meanings. As dummat it signifies “ the
hole of a field mouse ”. As dimm it means “ rupture The
context here requires the meaning “ mine ”.
34. hs: apparently some term indicating abundance, but I am un-
able to identify it.
35. 6 zr: zr, Arabic ZRR, means a sharp stone or flint. Here,
apparently, the instrument with which in earlier times mining
had been done.
35 f.’edd prs a: 1 take this to be the name of the mine. Both elements
of the compound name appear to be non-Semitic.
36. br: I take to be for b'r, “ well ”, “ pit ”, here a synonym of dm.
The Second Liturgical Poem from Ras Shamra
53
37. n'l ‘el: literally, “ the sandal of El ”, but here a proper name —
the name of the mine.
d: the relative pronoun; not dg as Virolleaud tentatively reads.
The perpendicular wedge is the word-divider.
40. mnm: pi. of min.
41. msdt: plural of mosad.
42. s': cf. the Arabic SW (sa).
43. shut khwt: apparently some sage whose fame has survived only
in this quotation.
ym’ an; cf. the Arabic man, which in the second stem means,
“ prepare ”, “ make ready ”.
44. dbh; cf. the Arabic dabah, “a sandy tract”.
44. rumm: see below, note on line 19 of the Appendix. Perhaps,
however, here the word is kindred to the Arabic raum, * wish
‘ desire ’, and means “ desired-things ”. This would suit the
context better.
ii, 3. plk : cf. Hebrew pelek, “ spindle ”.
5. npynh : cf. the Arabic nafy, “ exile ”, “ banishment ”, The final
n before the possessive suffix is an abstract ending; cf. the
Hebrew and Aramaic ending -on.
mks: literally, “a bond”; cf. the Assyrian maksu, “fetter”,
“ bond ”.
6. mdh : cf. Heb. madh, “ garment ”.
10. t'pp: cf. the Arabic 'ff. The imperfect tenses in this passage
express continuity of action.
11. tdzy: scholars are not agreed as to the reading of the second
and third letters of this word. If this is the correct trans-
literation, the word is unknown. The translation is con-
jectural.
12. xiotphn : cf. Arabic fhh, one of the meanings of which is “ forget-
fulness ”.
15. ybmt; perhaps better rendered “sister-in-law”. Cf. the Hebrew,
yabam, “brother-in-law”, and the NH, yebamah, “sister-in-
law ”.
22. ’al’eyn : Albright and Montgomery prefer the vocalization Aleyan,
but the ancient pronunciation is confessedly uncertain. In my
Semitic and Uamitic Origins, ch. IX, written in August, 1932,
I have given reasons for connecting the name with the
Hebrew 'allon, “ terebinth ”, “ oak ”.
Lines 27-31 contain an invocation of Anat. in which she implores help in
getting possession of the riches of Asherat. The directions
how to do this begin in line 32. Though the lines following
are much broken, it seems clear that one of the ways suggested
is to catch with a net the fishes of Asherat. Apparently here
we have a reference to the beginning of the fishing industry
as a source of Phoenician wealth.
54
George A. Barton
iii, 11. yqdd: to be so read, rather than yt'dd.
12. m'g: probably to be so read, though part of the first letter is lost.
ydd, or Yadad is the god Idad of Philo of Byblos; cf. Eusebius,
Evamgelicae Praep. I, 10, 37 ff. In viii, 46 ff. and viii, 13 ff.
he is associated with Moth, the god of death.
w yqlsn: cf. the Arabic qalasa, “rise up”.
13. wywpsn: I agree with Albright in regarding this as the Phoeni-
cian form of the Arabic nafatha, but translate by another
meaning of that Arabic root.
17. sn’a: I take to be a scribal error for snn. The omission of a
single wedge has made the difference.
VI Hs: literally, “the possessor of three”, but three what?
The context suggests that we supply pedth, “ edges ” after
the analogy of Jud. 3 : 16. Cf. also ham.ma.zleg S e l6shd Hnnayim,
the critical reading in 1 Sam. 2: 13. The context suggests that
the phrase was descriptive of a knife or dagger.
36. hwt : cf. the Arabic haieay, “ desire ”, “ love passionately ”.
iv, 5. The lacuna is supplied from line 10.
gpn : literally “ vine ”, if Semitic. Here it must mean some-
thing like stirrup ( ? ) . It is, at least, part of the trappings
of a horse. Montgomery’s guess, “ platters ”, does not fit the
context.
8. qd ; the parallelism of lines 13, 16, and 17 show that we should
read qds here. The scribe accidentally omitted s.
9. mdl ; cf. the Arabic madala, which, in the fifth stem means,
“ cover the face w-ith a veil ”. The context here requires the
meaning “ cover with a blanket ” or “ saddle ”.
11. nqbnm: “mines”; so Albright, correctly.
13. qds: Here a supernatural spirit, but in Poem III, line 65
Qadesh is the Kadesh in the wilderness. Amrar and Qadesk
are accordingly the spirits of the countries which form the
northern and southern boundaries of the Phoenician territory.
They were still conscious of having come from the South, so
Amrar (Amurru) forms the vanguard and Qadesh the rear
guard of Asherat’s queenly progress.
’amrr: as Montgomery suggests, a survival of the god Amurru.
15. ysmsmt: apparently a noun from the pilpel of sim, kindred
in meaning to the Assyrian simtu.
33. rdb : Montgomery connects with ratab, “moist”, but the mean-
ing thus gained does not fit the context. Perhaps the word is
connected with the Arabic radaba, “ suck the lips ”. The
context here requires the meaning “ hungry
wtdt’e: cf. the Arabic sawa, “dry”, “wither”, tdt’e is a
reflexive formation.
34. dmu‘ dm’et ; an infinitive absolute used with the finite verb for
emphasis.
55
The Second Liturgical Poem from Ras Shamra
39. yhss : hss means in Arabic, “ make one’s share small In
our context the meaning “ ward oil ” is naturally derived
from it.
t’rrk: cf. the Arabic 'rr.
41. thmk is a scribal error for thkm.
45. klnyn is difficult. I take it to be made up of the preposition k,
the plural of a noun from the root lun, “ pass the night ”,
“ lodge ”, and the pronominal suffix.
qdsh and nbn are conjeeturally restored from the fragmentary
letters visible.
46. nbl: conjeeturally restored from the remaining wedges, hi from
balal.
58. I tpn : TFN has in xith stem of the Arabic the meaning “ dwell
peaceably ”, “ be well mannered ”.
60. ’els: from ’als, “deceive”.
v, 5. rhntt : a feminine plural noun from rhm, “feel compassion”.
The m is changed to n before the dental of the feminine ending.
'etrk : cf. the Assyrian irtu, “ breast ”.
6. vm’ap: cf. the Arabic na’af, “drink one’s fill”.
dn; I connect this word with the Aramaic 'dna, taking y'dn in
line 7 as a denominative from the same root, 'dn may, how-
ever, be as Virolleaud thinks, edinnu , “ plain ”, in which
case the denominative verb would mean “ manure ”, “ fer-
tilize ”. The passage would then read, “ When the plain cries
out for its rain— Baal will make the plain fruitful ”.
9. Srh: cf. the Arabic . “shine brilliantly”, “flash”.
11. hm: Arabic hamd, “truly”, “verily”.
13. bhmk is shown by parallel passages to be a scribal error for
bhtk. Perhaps the perpendicular wedge which has changed
the t to m was meant for a word-divider.
39. mhmd: the reading of the text, Ihmd is correct to mhmd by
the parallel passage above, col. v, 31 f.
41. k$r-w-hss is treated in this text as a singular. If so it is a
compound name. Kasher and Khasas may be compared to
Uznum and Khasis, who appear in a Babylonian text as
messengers of the goddess Kingal (cf. Delitzseh HWB, 285b).
Uznum means “ hearing ” and Khasis, “ thought ”. Kasher
here means “ suitable ” and Khasas, “ thought In this
text they come to help build the temple.
42. I take this enigmatical line to be a rubric. The poem was
recited as a part of the liturgy of Alein's festival, and the
rubric directs the reciter to turn back and repeat a part of
the liturgy. Unfortunately the catch words, telling him
where to begin his repetition, must have stood in a part of
the text now broken away. For evidence of such recitals from
other nations see Myth and Ritual, edited by S. H. Hooke,
Oxford, 1933, chs. I-III.
49. This line I have conjeeturally restored in translating.
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George A. Barton
vi, 2. Restored from col. vii, 24, 25.
10. Conjecturally restored by analogy with previous lines.
11 and 12 are conjecturally restored.
13. 'Isn: cf. the Arabic ‘alasa, which in the second stem means
“ cause stomache ache ”.
psm: cf. the Arabic fSS, “collapse”, psm is plural.
16 and 17 are conjecturally restored.
23. nbl’at: Montgomery has satisfactorily explained this word;
JA08, LIII, 119.
32. td: Imperfect from the root WDY.
34. rqm: 1 take for Arabic rauq, “tent”, “canopy”, “curtain”.
36. ybnt : Ifil perfect of BNH, employed like the prophetic perfect
in Hebrew.
37. yu'tn: hophal of ’ATM; cf. Arabic ’atama.
43. IV em : “kids”; so Epstein, Friedrich, and Albright. Cf. the
sing, ll’a in col. viii, 19.
47. In this and the following lines I read with Montgomery ym,
“ day ”, instead of yn, wine.
51. khsm: I take to be k hsm, “like (or, “as it were”) shame”.
Cf. the Arabic haSam, “ fear ”, “ shame ”, “ bashfulness ”.
52. ks'at: I also read k s’at. Lines 51 and 52 I take to be inticipa-
tory of the two following lines.
53. rhbt : probably for rhmt, “ wombs ”, the m having been dialectally
changed to the kindred labial 6.
54. dkm: Montgomery’s identification of this with zikron in Isa. 57:
8 is both brilliant and convincing; cf. JAOS, LIII, 121. As in so
many agricultural cult rituals, the acme of the festival was be-
lieved to be a divine marital union. For Babylonia, cf. the
writer’s Miscellaneous Babylonian Inscriptions, p. 3 4ff. ;
Archaeology and the Bible, 6th ed., p. 346, and The Royal
Inscriptions of Sumer and Akkad, p. 259 f. For Egypt, Sethe,
Dramatische Texts zu altdgyptischen Mysterienspielen, p. 83 ff.
vii, 19. dqt : dqq in the ivth stem of the Arabic means “ examine ”,
31. ykr: cf. the Arabic KRR.
32. ’ahsn: cf. the Arabic hss, “make small ”, “damage”.
36. hd: I follow Ginsberg and Albright in regarding hd as a short
spelling of Hadad, analogous to Adda of the El-Amarna tab-
lets. See JPOS, XIV, 129, n. 147.
gpt : cf. the Arabic GFF, one of the meanings of which is
“hollow”. GPT also occurs in Ben Sira 40: 16, where the
“ hollows of the wady ” would make much better sense than
that which the Greek translator derived by rendering it
“ l‘P s ” or “ edges ”. In the form GPPY it occurs in Prov.
9 : 3, where another meaning of the Arabic root, “ crowd ”
seem to fit, but where the LXX rendered by epi kretera,
“ upon strength ”.
The Second Liturgical Poem, from Ras Shamra
57
dr: perhaps to be transliterated sr or tr, means, as in Poem
I, ii, 16, “ mountain It is from this word for “ mountain ”,
I believe, that our word “ Syria ” is derived, and not from
Assyria, by attrition, gpt sr would then be the “hollow
of the mountain ” or “ Celo-Syria ”, which was in later times
the land of Hadad.
38. Im: both here and in the next line I take to be the negative
lam, as in Arabic (many Arabisms survive in these texts)
and not the Hebrew lama as Albright does.
thi: I take to be the equivalent of Ar. HYS and not with
Albright, of Ar. gSY. The sibilants in these texts were not
as clearly differentiated as in later times.
39. n§q : while SQQ means primarily to “ split ”, the 2nd stem of
the Arabic means “ pronounce distinctly ”, I take it here to
mean “ recite ”.
53. gpn-w-agr is, as Virolleaud has perceived, another compound
name. Poem III, 8, 15 makes it the vine-god, but here he
is equated with Alein.
54. b: the variant text (Syria, XIII, 158), reads bn, “son”, which,
in the context, gives a much better meaning.
dlmt : the Hebrew salmaweth, “ the shade of Moth ”.
55 f. The lacunae are supplied from the text published in Syria,
xm, 158.
'mm ym: “ people of Yam Yam is the personified sea.
Apparently the sea-peoples are addressed here as shades along
with Gepen-w-Agar.
56. pr't : Virolleaud regards this as a feminine plural of the Hebrew
par'oh, and so gains the meaning “ princesses ' . I regard it
as an earlier form of the Hebrew par'oh. The t in pr t would
account for the final h in Hebrew. Why the feminine ending
should have been added in Semitic, we can only conjecture.
One thinks of the ascendency of queen Tiy over Amenophis
III, but there may have been some other cause.
57. ’abr: the Hebrew ’abir.
mnt: the Egyptian war-god, Mont. “The pride of Pharaoh,
the mighty one of Mont,” is a reference to the shades of the
Egyptian strain in the ancestry of the makers of this liturgy,
as the reference to the sea-peoples was to the Aegaean strain.
viii, 11. tk : from NKY.
13. hh: cf. the Assyrian hahha, “filth”.
gbrn: Virolleaud’s copy has sbr’a, but he notes that a bit of
clay is broken away and there may have been another wedge
which would give sbm— a reading which fits the context as
Sbr’ a does not.
20. qnh: from QXN, “flog”, “cudgel . ^
22 f. r« imm, literally, who art not stopped ”.
32. thm: from the root WHM.
47. gpn-w-agr: completed from col. vii, 53.
58
George A. Barton
Appendix
2. psltm: cf. the Arabic fasala, which, in the 4th stem, has the
meaning I have assigned the word here.
2-5. These lines are difficult and the translation uncertain.
9. bk: I take for the 3 pers. perf. from BKY.
12. 'msm' : the final m' is regarded by Virolleaud as a particle to
strengthen the meaning of the verb. I regard it rather as
employed with l as a compound preposition. On 'ms, cf. the
Arabic 'amasa, which in the 2nd and 4th stems means “make
whole ”, “ restore to health
17. tstnn: cf. the Arabic SNN.
hrt: cf. the Talmudic hereth, “soot”, “sediment”.
18. 'elm: in this context, not “gods”, but “weeds”; cf. the
Akk. alamu.
19. r’umm: cf. the Assyr. rimu.
gmn: cf. the Eth. gaman, “ violare ”.
43. trmmt: from the root RMM.
44. tdzyt: perhaps from the root DY' with infixed reflexive t, which,
after d has become z. Cf. the Arabic diya “ brightness ”.
45. rp'em: the Hebrew r e pha'im ; cf. Ps. 88: 11.
46. ' elnym , is, like the name a Veyn, to be connected with the Hebrew
word ’ellah, allon, “terebinth”; cf. e. g., Gen. 35: 4 and 8.
I take it that here the spirits of the terebinths are thought to
have died with Alein.
Corrections to Vol. 52, pages 221-281
Page 222, col. i, 23 for ht’eh read ht’eh.
Ibid., line 25 for I’atmm read l'a irnm.
Page 224, line 5 for “ who purifies ” read “ at the source of ”.
Ibid., line 21 for “ the god Ded ” read “ El-Ded ”.
Ibid., line 23 for “ the storehouse ( ? ) ” read “ a resting-place ”.
Ibid., lines 29 and 34 for “ cold-places ” read “ heights
Ibid., lines 31-33 read “the lord; his legs shall reach the footstool; his
head shall reach its top. Then Ashtar, the wise”, etc.
Page 225, lines 6-9a and 27b-30a read “ overcame her. Like the longing of
a young cow for her calf, like the longing of a ewe for her lamb, so
was the longing of Anath for the shrine of Baal.
Ibid., line 24 for “ is dust ” read “ the burning one ”.
Ibid., line 25 for “ of the fleshless ” read “ verily I will make them ”.
Page 226, line 5 for “ borne ” read “ begotten ”.
Ibid., line 15 read “ his feet he set on a footstool
Ibid., line 22 for “ the god ” read “ E] ”.
Ibid., line 31 for “while” read “there”.
Page 227, line 47 for “ god ” read “ El ”.
Page 228, line 12 for “ cold regions ” read “ heights ”.
Ibid., line 31 for “ god ” read “ El ”.
A STOEY OF VIKKA31A’S BIETH AND ACCESSION
M. B. Emeneau
Yale Uutvebsity
The Vetalapancavihsati in its various Sanskrit versions shows a
considerable number of interpolations. Some of these are found
only in one manuscript or group of manuscripts, others have become
integral parts of a version. One of the former type will be pre-
sented in this article, and another will be described. These will
complete the list of all such insertions which have been found in
available manuscripts. Consequently, it seems useful to classify all
the interpolations and to indicate the rationale of their insertion.
Two types emerge from the mass and will be treated after a short
preliminary account of the versions and plan of the work.
The versions of the story-collection known as the Vetalapanca-
vihsati are five in number according to the hand books on Sanskrit
literature. 1 Of these, Somadeva’s and Ksemendra’s versions (in the
Kathasaritsagara and the Brhatkatham an j art respectively) ma\
for our purpose be regarded as two versions of one original, the
Brhatkatha. Their subject-matter is identical in the Vetalapanca-
vihsati section. Jambhaladatta and SivadSsa provide a second and
a third independent version. The shadowy Vallabhadasa version
is, as I hope to show at some later time, nothing hut a sub-version
of Sivadasa, if it may be dignified with even as much indepen ence
as this. We have, then, to deal with three independent versions.
Of these the Brhatkatha versions and the givadasa version agree m
their general outline. There is a frame-story in w 1C
Vikrama (this and several other names are used) and the vetala-
inhabited corpse set out on the road to the false ascetic, e i e
telling stories on the way, and, when they finally arrive, the ng,
following the instructions of the vetala, outwits the ascetic. The
vetala on the road tells 24 stories, the conclusion of the
being the 2oth story which makes up the number of the idle. T
24 stories in these versions agree in subject-matter though gnadas
handles the details in a manner which is different from, and m
pendent of, theByhatkath a versions. We m n^c oiiclude that these
60
M. B. Emeneau
24 stories and no other were found in the original Vetalapanca-
vinsati. Jambhaladatta’s version, on the other hand, within the
same frame has 25 stories told by the vetdla. I 2
(1) This discrepancy in the number of the vetala’s stories results
from the first type of interpolation. Extra stories, namely, are
given to the vetala. Three of Jambhaladatta’s stories are found in
no other version and together with 22 of the original stories make
up the 25 of his version. My manuscripts for this version, few as
they are, yet divide into two groups on the basis of the stories
retained from the original stock. One only, Cambridge Add. MS.
1655, which comes from Nepal, omits the two stories which in the
Brhatkatha versions are numbers 17 and 18, in Sivadasa 16 and 17.
The other manuscripts (viz. India Office Sanskrit MS. 3108 [Egge-
ling 4097], Oxford MS. Wilson 242c [Aufrecht, Oxford Catalogue
32 7 ; this is a copy of the India Office manuscript], and MS. 144
in Catalogue of Sanskrit MSS. in the Calcutta Sanskrit College ,
vol. vi., p. 100), all from Bengal, omit the Brhatkatha stories 12
and 14, Sivadasa 11 and 13. The omission of these stories in pref-
erence to others may be rationalized for the second group. The
12th story of the Brhatkatha versions describes the winning of a
bride who lived in a world under the sea, and to this extent is simi-
lar to Sivadasa’s and Ksemendra’s story 8, Somadeva’s 7. The
Brhatkatha story 14 leads up to the “ Laugh and Cry motif,” 3
which is employed again in Brhatkatha story 23, Sivadasa 22. But
such a rationalization, weak and subjective as it is, cannot be
applied, so far as I can see, to the omission which the other manu-
script makes. This curious state of affairs indicates perhaps that
Jambhaladatta’s version originally included the 24 stories of the
other versions plus three other stories, and that later redactors,
offended by the discrepancy between the title of the collection and
the inclusion of 27 stories, in one way or another ousted a minimal
number of stories. 3 * Whether this is the true explanation or not, we
I The evidence for this is contained in my Jambhaladatta’s Version of
the Vetdlapahcavinsati (vol. 4 of the American Oriental Series), New
Haven: American Oriental Society, 1934, introduction.
* So designated by Bloomfield in his article in JA08 36. 54-89.
II The Newarf translation of this version adds further evidence to the
same effect; I now regard this theory of 27 stories as certain. Cf. the
introduction of the work cited in note 2.
A Story of ViJcramafs Birth and Accession
61
can safely assume that Jambhaladatta’s version has an interpola-
tion of three stories, and that the manuscripts give additional evi-
dence that the original Vetalapaneavinsati put 24 stories in the
vetala’s mouth.
Other interpolations of this type are found, but the results are
less complex and do not establish themselves as permanent features
of a recension. In three of the remaining cases the insertion is
made in the same place, immediately before the vetala’s final story
with its unanswerable riddle. (In Jambhaladatta’s version the case
is not so; one original story intervenes between the interpolated
stories and the final story.) These insertions are undoubtedly due
to the fact that the title will admit of one more story and the
redactor had a good story to tell. The bibliography of these inser-
tions follows.
In some manuscripts of Ksemendra an abstract of B aria’s
Kfidambari in 78 slokas was inserted. This interpolation I have
treated in JBAS, 1933, pp. 821-830.
India Office Sanskrit MS. 2239 (Eggeling 4096), which is attri-
buted to Vallabhadasa, inserts a tale whose theme is that of the
<f Judgment of Solomon.” The text of this story is printed in the
Catalogue. Manuscript 470 of Bhandarkar’s Report on Search for
Sanskrit MSS. Bombay Presidency 18S7-91 is identical with this
India Office manuscript. Of the two other manuscripts attributed
to Vallabhadasa which I have seen, one is incomplete, the other
contains no trace of this inserted story.
India Office Sanskrit MSS. 2688c (Eggeling 4095) and 1668a
(Eggeling 4094, Uble’s B), which represent in general Sivadasa’s
version, are at the end contaminated with Ksemendra s version.
They contain Sivadasa’s stories 1 to 23, then Ksemendra’s 23, 24,
and 25 (the conclusion of the frame-story), giving altogether 25
stories to the vetala. Ksemendra’s story 23 corresponds m subject
to Sivadasa’s 22, but the two versions work out the details m such
different ways that the stories were evidently regarded by the con-
taminator as essentially different. Here we have, as it were, a
“ fake ” interpolation.
Uhle’s manuscript c of Sivadasa has an interpolated story which
he describes as “Erzahlung XXV.” He published the text m ARM
viii. 1, pp. 63-64, and a translation with discussion of the theme of
the story on pp. 130-131 of his complete translation of Sivadasa s
62
M. B. Emeneau
version. 4 The story is told by the vetala, but Uhle nowhere indi-
cates its exact position in the manuscript.
(2) In the second type of interpolation there is an addition to
the frame-story, usually giving some account of the previous history
and relationship of the king, the ascetic, and the corpse. The posi-
tion of the addition is variable. Sometimes it is merely tacked on
at the beginning or at the end of the complete Vetalapancavihsati,
occasionally it is more carefully inserted somewhere in the frame-
story.
Uhle, in his article “ Eine sanskritische Parallele zu einer
Erzahlung in Galanos’ Uebersetzung des Pancatantra” in ZDMG
23 (1869), pp. 443-452, published the text and a translation of a
story added at the end of his manuscript g. Unlike most of this
class of interpolations, it has to do with the king’s use of the magic
powers which he gained by his ordeal in the Vetalapancavihsati.
It is an instance of the application of the parakayapravesavidya
and, as such, was further treated by Bloomfield in his article “ On
the art of entering another’s body ” in Proc. Amer. Philosophical
Society, lvi (1917), pp. 1-43.
At the beginning of manuscript 353, described in Peterson,
Report on a Search for Sanskrit MSS. Bombay Circle 1881+-8Q, p.
396, there is a short introductory story written in such bad Sanskrit
and so corrupt that publication is impossible. In it a digambara
Ksantisila at the end of a long “ transformation contest ” with his
pupil Govinda kills him and hangs his corpse on a tree. We
undoubtedly have here a previous history of the vetala- corpse, but
no connection is made in the manuscript between it and the main
story. I hope to discuss this story at some later date in connection
with the introductory story of the Tibetan and Mongolian versions
of the Vetalapancavihsati.
The motif of “ three boys born under the same star ”
The three remaining insertions are concerned with an accretion
to the Vikrama-legend which does not occur widely elsewhere, but
yet seems, from the variety of forms in which it occurs, to be a
fairly persistent floating element in the Vikrama-cycle. This is
the story of the birth at the same time of three boys, one of whom
‘ Yetalapantschavinsati, vol. 9 of the series “ Meisterwerke Oriental-
ischer Literaturen ”, Miinchen, 1924.
A Story of Vihrama’s Birth and Accession
63
is Vikrama. The other two are respectively the sons of a potter and
an oil-maker. A prediction is made that one shall kill the other
two and become king. The oil-maker’s son becomes, after different
vicissitudes in each version, the vetdla- corpse; the potter’s son
becomes the false ascetic of the frame-story. In the introductory
story to Uhle’s manuscript a 5 the potter deceitfully befriends the
oil-maker’s son, who apparently knows nothing of the prediction,
and hangs him on a tree. He is then forced to flee the country, but
returns in the disguise of a digambara, the false ascetic. 6 The
Hindi version of the Vetalapancavihsati 7 contains the same inci-
dent (as well as the preceding account of the seduction of an ascetic
by a courtesan) ; the details are so similar to those of a that we
may infer some close connection between the two accounts. It must
be noticed that a does not have the three verses introducing the
frame-story in the place where they are given in the usually accepted
text of Sivadasa; if it had them at all, it was on the first folio of
the manuscript, which ffas disappeared. Nor does it have the
introductory prose sentence which identifies the king and his capital.
The patching on of the preliminary story has been done with some
consistency.
The long preliminary story in India Office MS. 2688c (Eggeling
4095), the text of which is given below, has already been summar-
ised in the Catalogue. The three boys appear again here ; the rea-
son for their simultaneous birth is different, and some of the subse-
quent details differ also from those of a. The oil-maker s son
voluntarily acts a corpse at first, but later is killed and becomes the
nefala-inhabited corpse; the potter’s son, as a yogin, presents the
king with jewels and by a ruse causes the king to enter a parrot’s
body, while he enters the king’s body. "V ikrama succeeds in regain-
6 Text in ARM viii. 1, pp. 1-4; translation in volume cited in note 4,
pp. 3-10.
* AKM viii. 1, p. 95, critical note on 5. 23.
7 Oesterlev, Baitdl Pachisi, Leipzig, 1873. Early Ideas: A Group of
Hindoo Stories collected and collated by Anaryan [F. F. Arbuthnot],
London, 1881, pp. 103-109, presents an introduction to the \ eLilapaBca-
vinsati, which is merely a somewhat condensed translation of the Hindi
version, containing ali the incidents of that version. The Mara i Te7S1 11
of the Vetalapaflcavihsati has been translated by C. A. Kincaid as Ta es
of King Vikrama (1921). This version is a translation of the Hindi
version, made in 1830 by Sadshiv Chatre, and for our present purpose
differs not at all from the Hindi version.
64
M. B. Emeneau
ing his own body again, the potter* s son again becomes a yogin and
conies to the king* s court a second time with a magic copper vessel
with which he wins Vikrama’s favor. Then the main cycle of
stories begins. The twofold winning of the king’s favor is necessi-
tated by the two attempts made on his life, but bad workmanship
must be seen in the similarity of the two incidents.
Jambhaladatta s version has an account in the final frame-story
given by the vetala himself of his previous history. It is markedly
different from the two forms of the story which have just been
given, and yet some points of resemblance can be seen. The vetala
was originally an oil-maker who was befriended and instructed in
magic by a jnanin. But he defrauded the j ruinin' s former pupil
and in consequence of the jnanin’s curse became a vetala. The
former pupil then gained the king’s favor as an ascetic. It is evi-
dent that the former pupil corresponds to the potter’s son of the
other two versions and that we have here the same story without
the apparatus of the simultaneous births. 8 It must be observed
that only the Bengal manuscripts hare this story; the Nepal manu-
script shows no trace of it. This probably means that the original
version of Jambhaladatta, like the Brhatkatha versions and
Sivadasa’s version knew nothing of this story.
Thakur Rajendra Singh’s Legends of Vikrmadittya (Allahabad,
The Indian Press, 1913) purports to be an English translation of
Lallu Lai’s SingUsan Battisi , i. e. the Hindi version of the
Sihhasanadvatrihsika or Vikramacarita. As in the Jainistic ver-
sion of the Vikramacarita there is a drastic rearrangement of the
frame-story, following in the main that of the Jainistic version.
The first and second statuettes tell the history of king Vikrama.
In the tale of the second are found those incidents of Vikrama’s
life which the Jainistic version gives to the first statuette. In
addition to them there is the tale of three boys born under the same
star, in a highly condensed form. The demon conquered by Vi-
krama tells him of the simultaneous birth of Vikrama, an oil-
maker, and a potter. The potter with the aid of his deity had
ed the oil-maker and hung his body in a tree and was about to
overcome the king by assuming the form of an ascetic and going
roug the procedure familiar to us in the conclusion of the
8 Cf. Uhle’s translation of this story in the volume cited in note 4, and
the remarks in the introduction to that volume, pp. xxx-xxxi.
A Story of Vikrama’s Birth and Accession
65
frame-story of the \ etalapancavinsati. (My summary includes all
the essential points of Singh’s text and is little shorter than it.)
Other versions of this story of “ three boys bom under the same
star” have not turned up. It occurs in no text of any antiquity
except that of Jambhaladatta, and there its form is secondary to
the other versions and, as we have seen, it is probable that the inci-
dent is not an integral part of the original text as composed by
Jambhaladatta. Lallu Lai’s version of the Vikramacarita was com-
posed in the early years of the 19th century. The two interpola-
tions can, of course, not be dated. The evidence of the versions,
then, points to a late date for the addition of the story to the cycle ;
the subject-matter and details of the story (e. g. the part played by
astrology) do not make such a date necessary, though admittedly
they are very much at home in modern India.
Interpolation in India Office MS. 2688c.
In the Catalogue of the Sanskrit MSS. in the Library of the
India Office, part vii, pp. 1563-4, this interpolation is summarised.
The manuscript is modern, with no date. It is evident from the
incorrectness of the text, as will be seen in the critical notes to the
text here given, that the insertion was not made primarily in this
manuscript, but was found in the manuscript from which it was
copied. The insertion occupies about 18 complete folios.
The following analysis gives the main points in the story :
1. Birth of the three boys, including Yikrama; prophecy.
§§ 1-3.
2. Yikrama pretends madness to escape his elder brothers;
Bhartrhari becomes king. §§ 4-6.
3. Bhartrhari and the fruit of immortality. He abdicates in
favor of Durmukha. §§ 7-9.
4. A raksasa eats Durmukha and thereafter one king each day.
Jackals prophesy in Yikrama’s hearing that he will be king. § 10.
5. Yikrama is helped on his way to Ljjain by an ulmuka. § 11.
6. Yikrama becomes king and overcomes the raksasa. §§ 12-13.
7. The oil-maker hangs in the midst of corpses in a cemetery ;
the potter leaves Ujjain. § 14.
8. The potter, become yogin, gives 1 ikrama jewels and tricks
him into entering a parrot’s body, while he enters \ ikrama’s body.
§ 15 .
5
66
M. B. Emeneau
9. Parrots are slaughtered, and the Yikrama-parrot comes into
Vidyavati’s possession. §§ 16-20.
10. With her help Vikrama regains his body and the potter
becomes a crow. §§ 21-23.
11. The episode of the king’s wives and the oil-maker. The
oil-maker is slain and hanged on a tree. §§ 24-26.
1 2. The potter gains the body of a yogin and comes to Vikrama
with a magic vessel. § 27.
The Persian version of the Vikramacarita 9 contains a consider-
able part of this material. In its frame-story the birth of Vikrama
is narrated in a form very similar to the prefixed story in some of
the manuscripts of the Jain Vikramacarita. 10 Then follows an
account of how Bhartrhari came to the throne and at his wife’s
instigation drove Vikrama into exile. After this come the inci-
dents numbered 3, 4, and 6 above. The frame-story concludes
with an account of the magic throne. In the story of the 7th
statuette we have our incidents 8-10. Details of these stories are
in general similar to those in our text. Some connexion between
the two accounts must be assumed, but in view of the lack of other
versions we can say little more than that both are representatives
of floating legends about Vikrama. A more detailed examination
of some of the incidents is given below.
The story-content of our text is basically simple. The main tale
is that discussed above, the motif of “three boys born under the
same star ” and their struggles for the throne. The chief struggle
is that between Vikrama and the potter ; it is carried on by means
of the parapindapravesavidya. Of the four versions of Vikrama’s
adventures with this art treated by Bloomfield, that contained in
the Persian Vikramacarita is in the main nearest in detail to ours,
though it does not correspond exactly. Its yogin is, of course, not
equated with a potter, nor is he connected in any way with the false
ascetic of the Vetalapancaviirsati. Por other divergences I refer to
Bloomfield’s article.
The stories of the fruit of immortality and Vikrama’s winning of
the kingdom from the demon appear together again, not only in
the Persian Vikramacarita, but also in the Jainistic version. The
9 Lescallier, Le Trone Enehante, New York, 1817. 1 am indebted to the
Library of Harvard University for an inter-library loan of this rare book.
10 Edgerton, Vikrama’s Adventures-, text in EOS 27, 241-244, translation
26, 263-266.
A Story of Vikrama’s Birth and Accession
67
latter story is found also in the Prabandhacintamani. 11 In the
Jain Y ikramacarita these stories are numbers 4 and 5 in the frame-
story. For the former story there is a close correspondence in detail
between these three versions. The fruit passes through the hands
of the same people and in the same order. Other versions contained
in other texts of the Yikramacarita show dilferences in detail. In
the latter story our text is closest to the Jain Vikramacarita.
Neither has an actual battle between the king and the demon, while
in the other two versions a battle does take place. The king in our
version, when told that he will live to be one hundred years old,
says: mama ’yusi sunyam patitam. nyun-ddhikam kuru. In the
Jain Yikramacarita his words are: mama ’yusi sunyam patitam,
tarhi tvaya varsam ekam samadhikam nyunath v a karanlyam , 12
The Prabandhacintamani has no exact parallel for the first half of
this speech, and its wording is different for the second. In the
Persian version this incident is given, but it has no bearing on the
final outcome of the king’s struggles with the demon; the whole
story is loose-jointed in this version. For these two incidents the
Jain Yikramacarita seems to be the source for our text. 13
The incident of the interpretation of the cries of jackals differs
somewhat in its details in the Persian Yikramacarita. There Vi-
krama comes to IJjjain with his patron, a man from Guzerat.
Jackals howl at night, one of them with an almost human voice.
The patron in Vikrama’s hearing tells his wife what the jackal is
saying. His interpretation is practically identical with that given
in our text. This story is paralleled also in the (interpolated) 32nd
story of the Metrical version of the Yikramacarita. 14 Our version
shows that there gauli — gaurl == sivd, “jackal."’ The incident is
a special adaptation of the common motif of interpretation, real or
pretended, of animal speech and cries, which has been treated by
Bloomfield. 15
11 In Tawney’s translation, pp. 4-5.
12 Edgerton, BO , S 27.233, lines 18-19.
13 Singh’s work mentioned above has these two stories in the same order.
The first is close in detail to the versions of the Jain Vikramacarita and
our interpolation. The second differs somewhat; the demon is sent by
Indra to guard the kingdom and challenges V ikrama on his arrival. They
wrestle, the demon is worsted, and tells of the simultaneous births and the
false ascetic who is to appear.
14 Edgerton, BO S 27. 229 and 26. 248.
15 “ On overhearing as a motif of Hindu fiction , AJP xli. 309-335.
68
M. B. Emeneau
The “life-index” tree ( saubTiagyavrhsa , §8.7) as a “passive”
index is frequent in Hindu folklore, but instances in Sanskrit
literature are so rare that its use here is important, though it is of
late date and undoubtedly based on modern folklore. It is to be
added to the cases of the motif in Ruth Norton’s article “ The
Life-index : a Hindu fiction-motif ” in Studies in Honor of Maurice
Bloomfield, p. 220. It should be noted that here the index is intro-
duced with extreme casualness without any statement of its selection
or assignment; this is unlike the general tendency pointed out in
the article just referred to, p. 223. The incident is not found in
the Persian Yikramaearita.
Of the other incidents, that of the ulmulca is imperfectly moti-
vated and rather unintelligible ; we may suspect that it suffers from
omission of some important points in the manuscript. The latter
part of the incident numbered 11 above is also suspiciously obscure ;
some omission has certainly taken place and this may be responsi-
ble for the obscurity.
Most of the verses in the text are found elsewhere in Sivadasa’s
Vetalapancavihsati and are repeated later in this manuscript in
their usual places. For vss. 2-4 see IThle p. 5 and critical notes;
vs. 6, Uhle p. 17, vs. 23 (also Yikramaearita in Jainistic and Brief
recensions, HOS 27, 364) ; vs. 7, Uhle p. 11, vs. 26(24) ; vs. 10,
Uhle p. 11, vs. 31(29) ; vs. 11, cf. Uhle p. 6, vs. 12 and Boehtlingk
Indische Spriiche 998(379). Vs. 8 is Boehtlingk 5161 (2330). The
famous stanza describing the “ nine jewels ” of Vikrama's court
(vs. 9) is discussed fully by Weber in his article “ Ueber das
Jyotirvidabharanam.” 16 The verse is found in the Jyotirvidabha-
rana xxii. 10. The verse in rathoddhata meter (vs. 5) is not in
Boehtlingk. The introductory narrative verse is not found
elsewhere.
The manuscript is badly written with numerous corruptions, bad
sandhi, etc. In general I have tacitly corrected the sandhi, record-
ing the manuscript readings only where there may be room for
difference of opinion. One or two instances of corruption seem to
be of more than casual interest. At § 11.2 the ms. has jacate for
yacate, at § 13.24 sahajya for sahayyam. There are several cases
of double sandhi : § 1.13 tasyartham for tasya artham ; § 2. last line
sagarbhabhavan (ms. °vat) for sagarbha abhacan. In the episode
™ZDMG 22. 708-730, especially 722-723.
A Story of ViJcrama’s Birth and Accession
69
in § the ms. writes throughout vanig- for vn nig-. Everywhere
except at § 19.4 and 13 pihjara is read for pahjara, and I have
retained it in the text. Likewise I have retained ujjayani , which is
written throughout except at § 6.24.
A number of new or lexical words appear. There are three unre-
corded names of coins : sivahka, m., “ marked with Siva ” or
‘having a lucky mark”(?), §16.6, §18.14; rajatamudra, f.
(§ 16.12) and raupyamudra, f. (§ 18.14), “silver coin.” The last
two are synonymous; sivahka is the smallest coin, next in value
come these last two, then the dinara.
pulinda (§ 16.7 if.) appears in this text synonymous with mrgayu
and vyadha ; the meaning “ hunter ” is an easy development from
the recorded meanings “ barbarian, mountaineer.”
dhatar (§§ 4.3, 14.3, 19.14) seems to be used as an expletive. It
can hardly be anything but the vocative “ oh creator ! ” but the use
seems peculiar. Cf. vt 'dhatar (§ 25.11).
bahuvayaska, “ of great age ” (§ 27.2) is not recorded.
vihayasin, “heavenly one” (§13.17) is an emendation, but a
fairly sure one ; not previously recorded.
vohittha, “ship” (§ 10. 10) is recorded as a lexical word of neuter
gender. It is treated here as masculine with samayantam in agree-
ment with it. Considering the bad state of the text, samayatam
would be almost equally good; but variation in gender even of
common words is frequent in this text, and the emendation is
unnecessary.
sadhu, “usurer” (§21.3ff.) is also known from the Panca-
tantra; see Edgerton, The Panchatantra Reconstructed, 1, 155
and 228.
mahcanaka, gender not determinable, “ bedstead ” (§13.7). The
normal Sanskrit forms are mahca and mahcaka. We may compare
the Hindi words mac and macan ; the latter is in part responsible
for the form of our word.
nispadya, “having cooked” (§ 19. last line). With this mean-
ing beside the attested “ having caused to ripen,” compare the two
similar meanings of V P a c.
samardrya, “having moistened” (§6.16), from sam-ardrayati,
not recorded. Our word is, however, an emendation.
caurayate (§ 10.11) is a denominative verb from caura: the ms.
however is hardly to be trusted.
The late stem duhitd for duhitr is found at § 21.9 in the acc. sg.
70
M. B. Emeneau
and at § 21.1 as prior member of a compound; Waekernagel, Altin-
dische Grammatik , 3.16Sa.
The stem sresthi is found at § 18.20 and other passages, in the
cpd. dattakasresthi, instead of the stem sresthin.
The late usage of eka at the end of compounds, discussed by
Waekernagel 3.200 f, is seen certainly in phalaikam (§7.2) and
ndlikeraikam (§ 15.3) and probably in yoglndraikah (§ 9.1), though
this latter may be an instance of double sandhi for yoglndra ekah.
A comparatively rare type of compound is seen in vastavyayogya
(§ 21.7) ; Waekernagel 2.95e«.
The nominal construction replacing finite verb forms seems to
have caused the author or copyists occasional difficulties. In a few
cases the nominative subject appears instead of the instrumental
with a neuter passive participle: § 2.5 visalaksi tadvacanam srutvd
nijdrh cethh samdhuya bhanitam; §2.9 manorama tatra gatvd
nijarii cetlm samdhuya kuryath bhanitam ; §3.2 raja ’pi . . .
jyotirvido brdhmandn Cihuya kCiryam bhanitam (emendation to
raj ha is very easy). Conversely, the instrumental instead of the
nominative is found with an active participle : § 7.6 brahmanena tat
phalarh rCijiie dattavun; §15.19 rdjiid cai ’kdnte gatah (emenda-
tion either to rdjfi or to gatam is in order). The instrumental seems
to occur even with a finite verb: § 15.27 rdjha ksanam vicintya ’ha
(raja is a very easy emendation).
The uncertainty as to gender which has been mentioned above
involves masculine and neuter nouns. At § 1.13 anugraha is treated
as neuter. At § 6.2 v rttanta, which is reported as only rarely
neuter, is treated as neuter. At § 13.27 abhiseka is treated as
neuter. At § 19.9. the only passage where the gender can be deter-
mined. diwlra is treated as neuter. §15.19: rajahs tram para-
pindapraresam jdndsi. iti prasiddhah : here we have masc. for neu-
ter. Emendation would be easy enough, but is hardly worth making
in such dog-Sanskrit.”
The manuscript begins with the two introductory verses, Uhle p.
5, vss. 1 and 2. Then its text is as follows :
asld ujjayano raja sarvabhaumo 1 ’tithipriyah
yasmad ujjayanl prabhun nagarl 5 va ’maravatl. (1)
§ 1. tasya rajno dve bharve astarii visalaksi manorama ce ’ti.
visalaksi subhaga manorama durhhaga. visalaksi dvau putrau
susuve. manorama vandhya. taya cintitam : dhatah kirii karomi
A Story of Vikramafs Birth and Accession
71
kathaih mama putrotpattir bhavet. ekada in an or am a siddhasena-
brahmanasanhpam gatva pranjalim krtva sthita ’bhut. siddhasenas
tu tarn dlnamanasam 2 vilokya sasneham aha : aho manorame mama
’ntikam kimartham agata ’si. tayo ’ktam : svaminn aham anapatva
durbhaga ca kim karomi. aham api purodhasah 3 prasadat kathaih
sapatya bhavami, manasi bahudinam vicarya bhavantaih ma-
hanubhavam vijnaya saranam agam. 4 brahmaneno ’ktam : ksanam
atra tistha. yatha bhavatya tatha mama brahmanye 5 ’danim
bhanitam: bho sarvasam varam dadasi, anapatya ’hath punar
dayita. mama ’nugraham bhavata kathaih na kriyate. tasi’artham
tava ’rthaih ce ’danim yavad dhomarh vidhaya liutasesam payasapin-
dam abhimantritaih 6 dvayoh kare ’rpayami. ity uktva yajha-
kundantikam gatva homarii krtva homasesannam pindadvayam
abhimantrya tayor haste dattvo ’vaca : bho brahmani, imam pindaih
sayahne snatva suddhatilatailena dipakaih navlnaiii prajvalyo
’danmukhlbhiiya nutanamrtpatre 7 krtva bhoksyase. tava pntro
bhavisyati, vararucir nama 8 brahmavidam sresthah. aho manorame
nijantahpure gatvai ’vam krtva bhoksyase. tava putro bhavisyati
yasya sakah prthivyam calisyati, namatah prasiddho vikramadityah,
kandarpa iva rupadhyo harivaj 9 janavallabhah
samudra iva maryadi 10 ksamaya prthivlsamah (2)
himakundendutulyabhah surah suryahsunirmalah 11
nanamodasugandhadhyah saury e 12 ramasamah sada (3)
nanadanaparo nityarii nanadharmaparayanah
anekanrpatisirahsamabhyarcitasasanah. 13 (4)
§ 2. Idrsas 14 tava putro bhavisyati. nijalavaih gaecha. tato
manorama sotsuka 15 pindam adaya nijarajabhavane ’gamat. tatra
gatva vicarya: adyadine raja mama samlpe kathaih samayati.
bhavatu ko virodhah. visalakslsamipe gatva yace: adya mama
snanadinam, rajanam 16 mama grhe presava. visalaksl tadvacanam
srutva nijam cetim samahuya bhanitam : bho sumale grhe rajanam
gatvai ’varii vada mama vakyena: adyadine manoramaya saha
vastavyam. sa rajasamlpe gatva karne tadvaeo lapitva punar agat.
manorama tatra gatva nijam cetlih samahuya karyam bhanitam:
bho 17 cetike kumbhakaragrhad ekarii navlnaiii mrtpatraiii main
nlyatam. 18 cetika viditavrttanta 19 kulalalavam 20 agatya kumbha-
karavadhum aha : kulalakamini 21 gauge manoramai ’karii mrtpa-
tram vacate. 22 tayo 'ktam : kimartham. cetika ’ha : siddhasenena
manoramaya ekah pindo dattah. uktaih ca: manorame, imarii
72
M. B. Emeneau
pindam gatva nutane mrtpatre krtva bhoksyase. tava mahanubha-
vah putro bhavisyati. ity akarnya kulalakamini 24 manohladam
krtva navlnam mrtpatram ekam adaya svayam eva manoramanti-
kam asasada. tasminn eva ... 25 cetikaya 26 yamuna tailakarini
prarthita: suddhatailam rajfil yaeate. 27 yamuna tailam grhltva
manoramantikam agaechat. tato manorama snatvo ’danmukhlbhuya
mrtpatre pindarii krtva yavad bhunkte 28 tavad ganga praba : bbo
svamini 29 manorame vidbatra ’bam api nirapatya krta. kavalama-
tram 30 mahyam api prayaceba. 31 gangayam ittham 32 bbasamana-
yam satyam 33 yamuna ’pi praba : manorame mabyam api nija-
prasadaiii 34 kavalamatram dadasva, aham api vandhya. ittham
tayor vaeanam akarnya manorama ksanam vicintya pindam
bibheda. 35 pindardham svayam bubbuje. pindardbasya bhagadva-
yam krtvai ’karii bhagarii gangayai 36 dattavatl, ekarh yamunayai.
tabhyam api bhuktam. atha siddbasenena dattapindabhaksanat 37
tisrah sagarbhabhavan. 38
§ 3. dasame masi manorama ganga yamuna cai ’kasminn eva 39
ksane putraii 40 janayam asuh. rajna 41 ’pi manoramayah putrot-
pattim srutva jyotirvido brahmanan ahuya 42 karyam bhanitam :
bho brahmanah, lagnarii viearya bhanyatam kldrsam lagnam asti
yasmin putro jatah. rajno nirdesad daivajna lagnam viearya phalam
abruvan: bho raj an, prathamasya nama pratisthitam vikramaditya
iti. anena samano ’nyo raja na ’bbun na bhavisyati na vartate.
sarvalaksanasampurno rajarajo bhavisyati. paraiii sodasavarsiky
antardasa yad ullanghya 43 yasyati. tada rajna cintitam manasai
’va : mama jyesthaputram sumukham 44 vihaya katham raja bhavis-
yati vikramah. brahmananarh vaeo nisamya niranando raja brah-
manebhyo danarii dattva nijantahpuram agaechat. etasminn antare
vikramadityakumbhakaraputratailakaraputrans trin iman 45 akasa-
vanl nije nije grhe sthitan idam aha : yuyam traya ekansabhaginah,
ekasmad ekapindat 46 trayanam udbhavah. dvayam hatva bhavaty
eko raja, ity eva vieintyatam. trayo ’pi nijanijamatuh sakasad 47
viditasvajanmavrttanta nijapranaraksane sayatna 48 anyonyam
abhavan.
§ 4. tatab kadacit kale visalaksya 49 yau dvau sutau sumukha-
durmukhau nijamatrmukhad 50 brahmananam mukhad vikrama-
prasansaih 51 srutva visadam gatau. ekada ta ueatuh : dhatah
katham vikramo hanyate, yasmin nihata avayo rajyam niskantakam
bhavisyati. ity evam rabovacanarii kathayatos tayor manoramaya
73
A Story of ViTcramas Birth and Accession
grhad ayanti 52 vikramadhatri karpuramatl pathy asrnot. srutva
tallaksanam manoramante 53 nivedayam asa. manorama ’pi tan-
mukhac chrutva 54 rodanam eakara. vikramadityo ’pi matuh
sakasad 55 rodanakaranam vijnaya mataram aha : he matar ma ma
rodlh. 58 manasi dhairyam 57 vidhatsva. kuru mama vaeanam yad
vadami. mata yadati: kirn tad vaeanam putra. vikramo vadati:
matas tvam akhilan 58 lokan sravayantl muktakesa ha putre ’ti
sabdam kurvantl 59 nagare paryatanam kuru. vada lokah sra-
vayantim 60 mnktakesaiix 61 ha putre ’ti sabdam kurvantim 62 evam
vadisyanti : 63 are 64 manorame kim abhiit tava putrasva, tada tvam
evam vaksyasi: aham tailodvartanadibhir dine dine putraiia su-
srusamana ’stau vatsaran 85 ninaya. astavarsiko ’bhud vikramo maya
vidyagrhe presitah. vikramo ’pi gurukulam gatva vidyam 60 pathitum
arebhe. purvam vyayamavidyaparagamy 67 ekonasodase varse vi-
kramo ’bhut. idanlm vikrama unmatto ’bhut. kupe patati, vastram
akulayati/ 8 galim dadati, anyadai ’va 69 vadati. manorame ’ti
vaeanam srutva putrat vikramad idanirn ehadmabhavena tathai ’va
kurute sma. tarn manoramam 70 tatha viklisyamanam lokah prava-
danti : aho manorame kimartham rodisi. sa ’vocat : alio bhratarah.
aho matah, aho devah, aho pitah, kim karomi kva gacchami. vikramo
vikalo ’bhut. iti vaeanam sumukhadurmukhabhyam 11 api srutam.
rajna srutam. srutva drastum samayatah. parasparam ta ucatuh.
yady esa vikramo ’muna prakarena 72 mrtirir prapnoti, tada kim-
artham visadanaiir 73 kriyate gotravadhabhayat.' 4 uktarii ca.
loeane harinasavalocane ma vibhusaya krsafigi kajjalaih
suddha eva yadi jivaharakah 75 sayako na 76 garalena lipvate. (5)
§ 5 . vikramo ’pi sumukhadurmukhau vilokya ’tivamatto ’bhut.
yad akrtyam tat karoti. tan marma matai va janati na nyab.
tav api jatanandathu abhavatam. agnidahabhav al lokair nagaran
nihsarito 77 vikramah. vikramo ’pi vanantaram parib ramann
ekasmin sarastire gatva ’camya, ekottarasataparthivapujanam
aham karisya adyarabhya pratyaham iti samkalpam a ^ r ‘ 111 .
jarajyapraptaye. tatra sarovaratire mrda ekottarasatapa livas ^f n
ghattanam ekena panina karoti. vedoktavidhina nena sap o. l
mantraih prthak prthak pujayanti.' 9 haro mahesvaras cai va . sn a
panipinakadhrk, 80 sivah pasupatis cai ’va mahadeve ti vnsarj •
anenai ’va prakarena pratyaham ekottarasataparthivapuj am karoti.
anucchistasriphalapatrena 81 dhupadipanair vedya ma P I
dhaya rajyaprarthanantaram sivabhaktim vacate sma. yace ham
74
M. B. Emeneau
yaee ’ham siva tava earanaravindayor bhaktim, 82 yace ’ham yace
’ham punar api tam eva tam eva. 83
§ 6. itthaih sivarcanarii kurvantam sarastlre rajakiyavanacarina
’valokya sumukhadurmukhayor antikam gatva vrttantam ucyate 84
sma. tav api samyag vararcavidhim nisamva samksubdhacittau
babhuvatuh. 65 nijapitur agre vrttantam ueatuh. raja sunvor vacah
srutva praha ’tmlyan parlksakan : 86 gacchantu mamaka bhrtya
ye ea ’nye tu vicaksanah. manoramasutasya ’dya pasyantu hara-
ptijanam. tato rajajnaya lokah kutuhaladidrksavah 87 tatra sama-
gatva parlksanah 88 sarasas tira asritah. te paricchannlbhuya 89
yatra tatra sthitah, tasya pujavidbim 90 vilokayantah. 91 vikramo
’pi yathoktavidhina pujam akarsit. pujante fjambha 92 samagata.
jhayate mama 93 ’bhiprayah. sumukhadurmukhabhyam bhrtya mama
vadhartham presitah. te mama pariksam 94 grahltnm 95 atrai ’va
pracehanna 96 earanti. iti manasai ’va vicarya mahesvaran ksama-
panam 97 karavitva ’paradhah ksantavyo mame ’ty uktvai 98
’kottarasataparthivopari mutrotsargam krtva 99 tenai ’va mutrena
sarvah pindikah samardrya 100 samastangesu lepanam vidhaya
purlsotsargarii 101 krtva parthivamrttikaya 102 gudam visuddham
krtva nrtyam kartum arebhe mantram idam pathan : 103 siva siva
bho srlmahadeva sambho. sarvaih parlksakair etat 104 karma drstva
kathitam : aho bhratarah pujam 105 tu samvakprakarena krtve ’dam
eva ’nueitarii krtam. yat parthivopari mutrotsargah 106 krtah, tarhi
na 'yam savadhanah. satyam unmatto na ’tra samdehah. calyatam
geharh tyajyatam 107 ayam viksiptah. ittham 108 abhasya sarva
ujjayinlm puririi gatah. rajfia 109 ujjayanasva ’gre gatva vrttantam
abruvan. raja 'pi vikramasya tadrslm cestam srutva viksiptam
jnatva sumukhadurmukhau prati pravocat: aho putrau yuvam eva
rajanau bhavatam. 110 tatrai ’va ’tmamukham adarse nirlksya vrddho
ham iti jnatva samantamahamantryTtvikpurodhasacaryan 111 etan
anyan api samahuya vakyam jagada: he, adyarabhva sumukhasya
rajyam. atmlyam usnlsam sumukhasya sirasi sariivestya tilakam
krtva vane praealito raja, purad vinirgatya raja sumukham sam-
ahuya kathitavan : he, adyarabhva bhartrharinama tvam. sa tu
niscitam unmattah. tasmad asanka 112 na karya. sa yadi marisyati
tada marisyaty eva. no cej jlvati. tada viksipta eva rajyahsabhagl
na bhavisyati. evarii siksapanarii 113 dattva svayam vane jagama.
sa bhartrharl 114 rajyam karoti. dharmatah prajah sasati. 115
§ 7 . tatrai ’ko brahmano bhuvanesvarlrii devatam aradhayam
A Story of Vilcmma’s Birth and Accession
75
asa. taya 116 tasmai phalaikam dattam. tasya prabhavah kathitah :
yah phalam bhuiikte so ’jaramaratvam prapnoti. brahmanah phalaih
grhitva svagrham agatah. tatra snatva pfijam vidhaya yavat phalam
bhufikte tavad brahmanya bhanitam: bho kirn te ’jaramaratvena.
etat phalam raj hah 117 samarpaya. brahmanena tat phalam rajfie
dattavan, prabhavah kathitah. 118 rajna devyai pifigalayai dattam.
pifigalaya mandurikaya dattam. mandurikena vesvayai dattam.
vesyaya rajfie punah samarpitam. raja tat phalam punar grhitva
vesyam prcchati : tvaya kuto labdham. vesyaya bhanitam : mandu-
rikena dattam. mandurikam samahuya raja punah prcchati : tvayai
’tat phalam kuto labdham. cintarii vina 119 vada. teno ’ktam :
devyaya pifigalaya mahyam dattam. raja satyaih jiiatva ’ntahpure
gatva devim samahuya phalavrttantam prcchati: bho tatphalasya
kldrsarix svadu. 120 taj’a bhanitam: iti hrdyatii vakturir na sakyate.
rajna 121 mrsavacanabhasanae cintitam :
yam cintayami satataiii rnayi sa virakta
sa ca ’nyam icchati janam sa jano ’nyasaktah
asmatkrte ca paritusyati kacid anya
dhik tarn ca tarn ca madanam ca imam ca mam ca. (6)
iti vicintya raja virakto vadati : he pifigale mam vina bhavatya kim
kartavyam. tayo ’ktam: tvarii vina pranans 122 tyajami. ta any ah
striyo ’svaminls tisthantu. 123 rajna vicaritam. uktam ca:
arthanasaih manastapam grhe duscaritani ca
vancanam ca ’pamanam ca matiman na prakasayet. ( . )
§ 8. iti vicarya chalena 124 mrgayam gatah. tatra gatva mrga-
rudhirena ’tmavastram avalipya ’tmavastrakarinah kare datt\a raja
kathitavan : he karmakarin 123 grham gatva bhavata vaktavyam : raja
vvaghrena vyapaditah. idam mama vastram rajnliii darsaya. sa tatra
gatva tat sarvam rajfio ’ktarii vrttantam nivedva rajnlhaste tad vas-
tram dattvai ’vam vadati : raja vvaghrena vyapaditah. devya cin-
titam : vatikayam saubhagyavrksarir maya drstavyam. sa puspava-
tikavani 126 pravisya tarii vrksam haritarii vilokva cintatura vadati :
he vidhatah, 127 kirii karomi. vrksat svamino maranaih 128 na labhyate.
idanlm mama maranam srestham. iti vicintya tatra ’gatva ha natha
ha nathe ’ti jalpayitva mrta bhumau patati. etat karma maranan-
tikam vilokva slghragamina 129 tena rajfio ’gre kathitam. raja tac
ehrutva mrgavam tyaktva slghram purlin samayatah. tarn mrtam
drstva tasya mukharn krode krtva nadltlre 130 nisasada, ha pmgale
ha pifigala iti jalpan.
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M. B. Emeneau
§ 9 . etasminn eva kale yogindraikah kuto ’py agatah. atmamr-
dahsthalim 131 bhumau niksipya rodanam karoti : ha mrdahsthali 133
kva gata ’si. tvarh vina katham bhavamah. raja tadudiritam
akarnya yoglndrarii provaca : bbo mrdahsthalim 133 prati kim rodisi.
yogindreno ’ktam : mama sahayakarinim prati katham na rodimi. 134
tam hastayoh krtva bhiksam grhnami. punas tarn ratrau sirasi
kandukikaromi. 135 punas tam culhim nidhaya ’nnam pacami. punas
tatrai ’va ’dmi. punas tam grlsme chattrikaromi 136 varsartau 137
ca. tarii katham na rodimi. 134 tvam pingale pingala iti rudan 138 kim
tava karmakarinlm nirmanim randam prati kim rodisi. rajna cin-
titam : ayam ko ’pi mahasayo yogindrah. iti vimrsya 139 tasya padau
grhltva vadati : bho yoglndra mam sisyam kuru. teno ’ktam : etat
phalam bhunksva. mama samo bhavisyasi. 140 acirat siddhim avaps-
yasi. raja tatha krtva yoglndreua saha vane praealitah. dur-
mukham samahuya rajyabharam dattva gatah. tatra durmukho
rajyam karoti.
§ 10 . ekada durmukho ’pi mrgayam gatah. tatra raksasena
ghorarupena vyapaditah. punah sista yam yam rajanam kurvanti
tam tam ratrau khadati. 141 evam ujjayani rajyasunya jata. ekas-
mins cit kale vikramo ’pi desantaram paribhraman svakiyodaram
katham katham cid bibharti. ekada tena cintitam: ksatriyanam
maranam srestharii na bhiksatanam. uktam ca:
yatha hy ekena cakrena na rathasya gatir bhavet
evam purusakarena vina daivam na sidhyati. 142 (8)
tat karomi 143 yatha rajyaih prapnuyam. ekasmin divase vanigja-
nanam vohittham samudrad uttlrnam samayantam drstva vikramas
caurayate. 144 te vanigjanas tatra nadlm drstva siviram cakruh.
tatra vikramo ’pi nadlkule niliyo ’pavistah. rajanlmuklie srgala 145
militva ravam vineduh. 148 tesam vanigjananaih sakuniko brahmano
’vocat : he vanigjanah. adyai ’kas caurah samayatah, niliyo ’pavistah.
sa tu prasthaya kirn grahisyati 147 ’ti na jane, ta evam srutva
jagaruka eva sthitah. punah srgalair bhanitam. sakunikah punar
abravit : nadyah pure 148 vahyamano mrtakah samayati. tasya katau
ratnacatustayam uddyotitam. vartate. 149 vikramena tad vakvam
srutva nadxpure drstim 150 dattva jagarukah sthitah. nadlpurake
mrtakam drstva ratnany avalokya brahmanavacanam satvam jnatva
bahubhyam antaram 151 nadimadhyan mrtakam samaniva ratnany
adaya punas tatrai 'va sthitah. trtiyaprahare punah srgala avadan.
punah sakunikeno ’ktam : kena ’pi nadimadhyan mrtako nihkasitah.
A Story of Vihrama’s Birth and Accession 77
tanmahsam bhaksayitva ’slrvadam vadanti. 152 yena mrtako nihka-
sitah 153 sa tu ’jjayanisvaro bhavisyati 134 svo va parasvo va. yikramo
’pi tad vaeah srutvo ’jjayanlm 156 pracalitah. te vanigjana brah-
manam nindanti : bbo brahmana, evam mrsavakyam bhavata kutra
’pi na vaktavyam. kutro ’jjayani kya ca ’sau caurah kya rajyam.
§ 11. vikramo ’pi pathi gacchann ekolmukam pasyati. tatro
’Imuke yanl samjata : bho yaram bruhi. yikramo ’pi varam yaeate : 156
yadi tusto ’si, idanim njjayanim prapnuyam. punab tyam ko deyo
’si. teno ’ktam : bhairavo ’ham. kena ’pi mamo ’pasana krta. mama
bhaksyabhojyasamagrim 157 yihaya mayo ’ktam: bho tava ’desat
samagato ’ham ksudhitah. 158 mansair mam samtarpaya. teno ’ktam :
mrtakasya vamakarasthane daksinakarasthane padayoh sthane
mannsya yartante, tan bhufiksya. tatra tatra na drstam. tam
mrsavadinam drstya maya bhaksitayyam. adya tvam netramudra-
nam kuru. ujjayanlrh prapnosi. yikramo ’pi netronmilanam krtvo
’jjayanim prapitah.
§ 12. tatrai ’ka 159 brahman! rodati sma. tatra gatva vikramah
prcehati: kirii rodasi. sa ’yocat: adya mama putrasya rajyam.
tasmad rodami. ma rodlh. adva ’ham raja bhayami. tad vacah
srutva yatha suske vrfhau jalam nipatati, tatha brahman! sananda
’bhut. tasmin ksane rajadvarapalakah samayati: he brahmani
kva 160 tava pntrah kva ca ’sau. brahmanya bhanitam : ayam mama
putrah. tena hastau grhltya sistantike samanitah. sistas tam vilokya
vimanaso 161 rajyam dattavantah.
§ 13. yikramo ’pi rajyam prapya sistan prcehati : bho sistah,
yusmakam raja ’ham na va. tair uktam : bhavan asmakam sar-
vathai ’va raja, yady aham raja mama ’jfiam kuru. prati gramam
dutan presayadhvam. mamo ’payanam caturvidham carvyam 162
cosyam lehyam peyanx madhu mansam etani samaniyantam. sistaih
presyah sampreritah. te grhad grhad gTamad gramad upayanani
samajahruh. tat sarvam maiicanake sthapayitva rajanimukhe
sistan visrjva khadgam grhitva jagarukah sthitah. ksudhito raksa-
sah samayatah. tam vilokya khaditum pracalitah. vikramas tam
samayantam niriksya vacanam vadati: bho, idarii bhaksyabho-
jyam 163 addhi. pascan mama mahsena 164 samtusyasi. teno ’ktam :
evam bhavatu. raj any am tat sarvam bhaksitam. panam krtva
mattah prahrsto yayau. punah pratah sistaih samayatah. tam
rajanam sajivam drstva trasita babhiiyuh. ye 165 vrddhatarah te
bruvanti: anena rajna sanatha vayam. dvitiyadivase rajna tathai
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M. B. Emeneau
’va krtam. sa tu raksasah. tasmin samaye punar ayatuh. eaturvidhaih
bhojanarh krtva sthitah. rajna prstah: bho vihayasin 166 tvam kirii
kirii janasi. sa vadati : sarvaih j an ami. rajno ’ktam : tarhi mama
’yuh kiyat. teno ’ktam: satayuh tvam. puna rajno ’ktam: mama
’yusi siinyarii patitam. nyunadhikarii kuru. teno ’ktam : nyuna-
dhike mama saktir na’sti. puna rajno ’ktam : tarhi bhaksyabhojyarii
na dasyami. maya saha samgramam kuru. teno ’ktam : chalito
’ham bhavata. varaih brCihi. rajno ’ktam: yadi tusto mama sarii-
kate sahayyaih 167 kartavyam. teno ’ktam : evam astu. iti varam 168
dattva raksaso gatah. punah pratar utthaya sista rtvikpurodhan-
vagata 169 rajadvaram samayatah. rajanarii vilokya prahuh: 170 bho
rajan jyotirvidaih prstva puriye ’hni tava rajabhisekarh kartavyam.
tasmin brahmanamukhan srute 171 ’hni saptadvipavatirii prthvim
ryaghraearmany alikhya 172 sinhasane samsthapya nagarika 173
varnah sarve ’pi rajyabhisekaih krtavantah. etasminn antare
nijakulasakalaprakasanaikamartando 171 vikramadityo mahlih 175
palayam asa. tasmin rajfii mahirii sasati sarve varnah svadhar-
manuraktiih.
dhanvantariksapanakamarasihhasanku-
vetalabhattaghatakarparakalidasah 176
khyato varahamihiro nrpateh sabhayam
ratnani vai vararucir 177 nava vikramasya. (9)
§ 14 . yadai ’va vikramo rajyapraptas 178 tadai ’va tailakarena
cintitam: dvayath hatva 179 bhavaty eko raja, ity aha ’sariravak. 180
kim kunam. dhatah, rajakulalau hanturh na ’ham alam. pararii 181
tv ekarii karomi. vaitalikaiii janami. tat karomi. yad itah krosa-
matropari sihsipavrkse mrtaka avalambitas 182 tisthanti, tatra ’ham
api gatva dirgharajjva nijagalam 183 baddhva mrtakasatantarala-
madhve sarvajanavijnatamarma 181 ’valambitas 185 tisthami nisi
diva svakarmabhirata 156 iti. atrantare kulalena ’pi cintitam:
rajabhiya yady aharh gehe pramadlbhiitas tisthami, tada raja
tailakaram marii l8, cai ’katra krtva hanti. akam tau hanturii na
lam. pararii 1 1 tv ekarii karomi. ahaiii parapindapravesl raja ca.
ujja}’ 311 ! 7 * 1 1 3 tyaktva 159 desantaram yami. ity uktva desantare
samudratire gatah.
§ 15 . tatra gatva kanthah 790 paridhava yogino rupam asthaya
ratnasatadvayam alabhat. sasthe masi tad ratnaiii grhitvo ’jjayanlm
agatah. tatra nalikeraikarii grhltva tasmin ratnam ekarii niksipya
rajriah sabhayam agatya rajna aSisaiii dattva rajno haste nalikeram
A Story of Vikramas Birth and Accession
79
adat. tatra ksanam sthitva siviraiii gatah. punas tatrai ’va ’yat
sanmasam. ekada sasthe masi punas tathai ’va yavad rajno haste
dadati, tavan markatena grhitva nijasirasa vidaritam. tasmad
ratnam 191 bhumau patitam. tattejasa sarvasabho ’ddyotita . 192 tat
kautukaih sabhasadbhir janair drstam cintitam. raja ’pi sascar-
yarii 193 brute : yogindra tvaya kimartham nalikere ratnam 194
samarpitam. yogindro ’vadat: sanmasa era yavanti nalikerani
dattani 195 tavanti ratnagarbhani 196 pramanam iti janlhi. tato
raja vogino vacanam akarnya bhandagarikam ahuya ’prcchat: he
bhandagarika, etat sarvam ratnagarbharii nalikeram mahyam 19r
adarsaya. tannirdesad 198 bhandagariko pariganayitva rajne datta-
van. raja 199 sarvani phalani ratnagarbhani drstva sanandam
yoginam aha : bho yogindra manobhilasitam varaib yaeasva. sarvam
purayisyami. yog! praha : raj an yady ekante calasi tada nivedayami.
rajna cai ’kante gatah. punar aha yogi: rajahs 200 tvaiii para-
pindapravesam janasi, iti prasiddhah. mamai ’ko mrtah suko
vidyate. tvam imam jlvapava. rajo 201 ’vaca : tarhi bhadram.
yavad raja pranan nigrhya sukam 202 pravisati, tavad yogindro
nijapranan daksinamustau 203 nidhaya sajjlbhuva sthitah . 204 etas-
minn antare rajno ’pi pranah svangan 205 nihsrtya sukapinde
praristah. yoglndrasya prana rajapindaiii sunvam jiiatva hrdy eva
’visan . 206 yavae chukam hanti, tavac chabdarii krtvo ’ddlya 20r
palayitah. raja 208 ksanam vicintya ’ha: yogindro mrtah. ksana-
matram mrsanutapam krtva janaih kutlm karavitva yoginam
niksipya 209 kutlmudranaiii krtva sukamarane krtaniscayo ’bhut.
§ 16 . tatah prabhrti 210 vikramadityarajyopabhogam vogy eva
karoti. rajamatyo rajamahisyas ca ye ea ’nye nikatavartinas 211
te ke ’pi nai ’va janate. ekada raja mrgayun upahuya 212 sadararii
vacanam aha: bho vyadhah, nagaraprantavanavasino yavantah
sukas tavantah samniyamya ’nlyantam. bhavadbhyah prati sukam
mayai 213 ’kah sivanko datavyah. tato rajanirdesat 214 sarvesu ... 215
pulinda jlvatah 216 sukan nivamya pinjare krtva 217 rajne dadati . 218
raja tebhyo mulyam dattva sukan adayai 219 ’kaikarii svapanina
hanti sma. evam kramena trimasamadhye prantanivasinah suka
nihatah. tato vyadhair agatya raja vijnaptah: bho, atra vane suka
na santl ’danlm. bho bhratarah. desantarac chuka anlyantam . 220
mulyarii prati sukarii rajatamudram dasyami. rajno vacanam
akarnya lobhat krsnamanasah sarve varna desantarac chukan
niyamya rajne prayacc-hanti. ekada gatya lokair uktam : maha-
raje 221 ’danlrii pancasatakrosaparvantam suka na santi. rajno
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M. B. Emeneau
’ktam : yadi ’danim suka 223 aniyante tada prati sukam ekam
dinaram dadami. lobhavyakulaeetasah sukanvesane yatas tato
nikhilalokah paribabhramuh. 224
§ 17. athai ’ko jaratpulindo vanad vanam parvatat parvatam
paryatan kailasopante 225 parvatam ekam apasyat. tasmin pary-
ante 226 salmalitarum apasyat. tatra gatva pulindah salmalau
drstirh dattva ’cintayat: asmin suka nivasanti. jalam aropayami.
ity uktva jalam adaya sarvasu caturdiksu 227 jalam aropya svayam
uttatara. tattate 228 yavae ehayanam karoti tavac cbukapaiiktayas
ta api samtatab. 229 vikramo ’nyan sukan vadanti: bbo sukah,
vyadhena ’gatya jalam aropitam. tatra sarve satnjatab. kim karis-
yamah. suka ucuh : vatha bhavadadesab. bhavantah sarve mrtakl-
bhutas tisthantu, sa hi jlvata eva sukan grhnati 230 na mrtan.
mama vaeab sruyatam. yada vyadho ’mum tarum aruhya sukan
mrtlbhutan draksyati, tada pinjare na karisyati. bhumav eva
patayisyati. tada sarvair mrtakalpais tavan no ’ddlya samtaritavyam
yavad 231 aharii sabdam na karomi. ekam eva mam 232 vyadho
grahisyati. paresam upakaram tu karomi. iti vikramasukasya
vacanam srutva sarve mrtaklbhutab sthitah. etasminn eva ’ntare
suptottbito vyadho ’valokya sarhjatan sukan avalokya vrksam
aruhya kramena ’d h ahsakh i n i v a s i n ah sukan mrtakan nirlksya
bhumau patayati. tato rrksasironivasinam vikramani yada pasyati,
tada sajlvab panina dhrtah. yada dhrtas tada teno ’ccaih sabdah
krtah. tasmin sabde krte sati bhumisthah suka uddiya palavitah.
vyadhah sanutapo ’bhut. ksanarii vicintya vikramam pinjare krtvo
’ttlrna ujjayanlm pracalitah.
§ 18. vikramasukarii prati sa kruddho 233 bahudha samtarjayan
galir 234 dadat, 235 ekada margamadhya agacchan madhyadine
ghanaehayam vatam asritya pinjaram svasirobhage dhrtva svayam
susvapa. suptarii vijnaya suko brute: blio vyadha. varatrayam aha.
vyadho brute: ko mam ahvayati. suko brute: abam. vyadbo
’vadat: kimartham. 238 suko ’vadat: abam tvam preehami. yadi
matto nivedayasi. so ’vadat : prccha prccba. suko ’vadat :
kimartham mam pinjare krtva nayasi. so ’vadat: are vikrama-
dityaya tvam dasyami. suko ’vadat: raja mam 237 adaya 1dm
karisyati. so ’vadat: hanisyasi. suko ’vadat: kimartham. so
’vadat: are. ekada raja yogina sardhaih mantram karturii raho
gatah. yogi mrto na jnayate kena hetuna. tatah prabhrti raja
viksiptamatir abhiit. sukan eva hanti. prathamam prati sukam
A Story of Vilcramas Birth and Accession
81
sivanko datto maulyam, puna raupyamudra mulyam, punar dvayam,
punas catustayam, idanlm dinaram ekam dadati. suko Vadat : aho
vyadha yadi mamai ’kam vaeah srnosi, tada bravlmi. 238 so Vadat :
kathaya. suko Vadat: yadi laksatankam dapayami, tada mam
muncasi. so Vadat : tavai ’sa 239 kutah. suko Vadat : yadi laksa-
tankam dapayami, rajne na dadasi, tada dapayami. so Vadat:
kasmat. suko Vadat : dattakasrestheh suta vidyavati. tasya era 240
mam arpayasi. 241 tada sa tubhyam laksatankam dasyati. so Vadat:
yadi sa na dadati. suko Vadat: tada Tajne dasyasi.
§ 19 . manasa 242 niscayam vidhayo ’jjayanirii 248 ratrau pravisya
nijalayam ajagama. bbarya vyadham alabdhasukam masatrayopari
grham agatarh vilokya galipurvakam sakrodham vacanam aha : are
dagdhasmasTo matisrantais tavatkalam gamayitva ’gato ’si. pan j are
sukas 244 tu bahavo na drsyante. vyadho Vadat : are kante, 245 kai-
lasakandaropante salmalau mahata kastena maya sukasahasram 246
labdham. param tv anena sukena sukanam Isitra chadma 247 krtam
yatah sarve palayitah. atha sa eva 248 jlvan dhrtah. vyadhi praha :
ayam api katham na hatah. kim anenai ’kena yadi dinaram ekam
na praptam. vyadho brute : idaniih tvam nitah. pathi sranto 249
vyadhim 250 maireyam patum 251 yacitavan. taya nitam pitam
maireyam. 252 vyadho bharyam aha: suko 253 hanyatam. asya
mansam admi. vyadhi bhartur nirdesad 254 yavat panjaran nihsara-
yitva hantum ... 255 tavac chuko brute : dhatar aham idanlm
anaya vyapaditah. kim karomi. param vadami. suko Vadat: ah o
vyadhi, 256 yadi tubhyam tankanam laksam dapayami, tada mam
muncasi. tayo ’ktam : tarhi katham na muneami. param tu tvaya
labdhavyam kutra. suko Vocat : yadi mama kathanam karosi, mam
dattakasresther duhitur antike nayasi. tubhyam tankanam laksam
nijamulyam dapayisyami. srutva sukavaeo vyadhi nisi pahjarastham
sukam adaya vidyavati . . . : 257 ekah pathitakhilavidyah 258 suko
"sti. mama bhartra 259 kailasaprante labdhah. 280 vidyavati vyadhim
aha: kathaya \ya mulyam. vyadhi praha: yad eva suko nija-
mulyam vadati, tad eva dehi. vidyavati sukam aha: bho suka, 261
atmamulyam vada. suko Vadat: tankanam laksam ekam. sukad
akarnva vidyavati dasayutam tankanam nijaharam adan 262 nih-
saryya vyadhi tarn haram nltva hatte 263 tittiram ekam grhltva
nispadva bhartaram bho j ayam asa.
§20. etasminn antare vidyavati nijacitra-salayam sapinjaram
sukam gavakse krtvo ’pari vastrena ’cchadya yatra sete tatra siro-
6
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M. B. Emeneau
bhage ’vasthapya vrttantarh prcchati. suko ’vadat : vidyavati,
vikramaditvaraja ’ham. yo rajyam karoti, sa tu yogi bhavati. tena
mama seva sanmasi 264 krta. ratnam krtva nalikeram ekam prati-
dinarii 265 samarpavam asa. sasthe masi mama karan markatena
grhitva vidaritam. tasmad ratnam ekam bhfimau patitam. tad
ascaryari) drstva yoginam praty aham avocam : 266 bho yogin, tvaya
kimartham etad anitam. bho yogihs 267 tava kam 268 kamarii pura-
yami. punar yoginah sarvam purvavrttantam nivedya: vidyavati,
tadarabhya suko ’ham. ittham sukoditam nisamya vidyavati
sanandam aha : dhairyam kuru, yavat 269 tava krte yatnam karomi.
§ 21. etasminn antare dattakasresther 270 duhitavidyarupam
akarnya raja nijamatvan vivahaearyan 271 dattakasamnidhanam
praisayat. 272 tatra gatva ’matyah 273 sadhum abruvan : bho sadho,
nijaduhitaram vivahartham dehi. no ced dasyasi, raja balatkarena
’paharisyati. srutva mantrivacah sadhuh sokasamdigdhamanasa 274
uvaca vaeanarii prajno mantrinah purato rudan: sa desas tatra
vastavvavogyo na bhavati, yatra raksako bhaksakah. raja mama
mitram. yatha rajiiah svasuta 2,5 tatha mama, idanim raja viksipto
jato nijaduhitam eva parinesyati. ahaha yatah prabhrti 276 raja
vogina sardham gatah, tadavadhi raja viksiptacinto ’bhut. uktam ca :
ramo hemamrgam na vetti nahuso yane yunakti 277 dvijan
viprasvai ’kasavatsadhenuharane jata matis ca ’rjune
dvute bhratrcatustayam ca mahisim dharmatmajo dattavan
prayah satpuruso vinasasamaye buddhya paritvajyate. (10)
§ 22. evamadini vakyani kathayitva yatha rajanirdesa 278 ity
eva bhasva mantrino visarjayam asa. svayam sokasarixtaptamanasah
pan-auke 279 susvapa rajakrtam dhyavan. atha tarn pitaram
suptam \ i j fiay a vidyavati gatvo ’tthapve ’daiii vacanam aha: aho
pitar ma bhaisih. utthistha ’nnaih bhuiiksva. ekam asankam tvam
prcchami. tarn tvarii durikuru. pito ’tthito ’vadat : putri vada.
!-a briite . Tata hhartuh stri kada bhavati. pita praha: vada pitra
samkalpo dnate daksinaparsvad vamaparsva upavisati. ity
akarma ' idyavati pitaram asvasya tadvrttantaiii sukam nivedya
k^anam panankam aruhva pitaram samahuya lagnadinam vicara-
^itva rajho mantrinah- 81 presayam asa. raja ’pi lagnam asadya
vivahasamagririi karayam asa.
§ 23. etasminn antare vidyavati vayasam ekam vyapadya nija-
paryankatate 282 samsthapya sukam 283 sajjikrtya rajne sakhim
A Story of Vikramas Birth and Accession
83
presayam asa: bho sakh.i, rajasamlpe gatve ’ti tv ay a bhanitam: bbo
maharaja, vidyavatisamdistam vastu srnusva. 284 dinadvayad urdh-
vam bhavantam ahvayati. rabah kimcid vadisyati. sa tatra gatva
rajanam sinhasanastham nirlksya ’ntikam gatve ’dam aha: bho
rajan vidyavatya tvam eka eva samahutah. kimcid rahovicaram 285
karisyati. janya loka vivahadine yasyanti. 286 tato raje ’dam akamya
sanandamanah krtalamkara 287 ekakl vidyavaticitrasalam ajagama.
rajanam npavesya svayam pitur antikam gatve ’dam aha : bho pita
raja citrasalayam vidyate. tvam kntumbah praechannibhiiya 288
samantato ’valokaya. abam Tajantikam gatva kimcid vaco vadisyami.
pitaram adisya vidyavati rajasamnidhau 289 bhumav upavisya raja-
nam aha: bho rajan tava strl bhavisyami pitrdatta. avayor anta-
ralam, kim api ne ’ti. iti matva kimcid vadami. parana vadi
matkathanam karosi. anyatha yadi karosi tada ’ham marisyami.
rajo ’vaca: sundari ma bhaisir vada 290 vada. sa ’vocad rajanam:
maye 291 ’dam srutam yad uta rajan 292 parapindapravesam janasi.
raja praha: sundari satyam idam vacah. sa ’vocat: 293 rajan yady
evam mrtasya ’sya kakasya pinde pravisyatam. raja ’pi vidyava-
tTlavanyam alokya kamavasam apanno matibhranto vicarayan 294
sahasa patantaralam asadya kakapinde pravestum mano dadhe.
yavad rajapranah 295 svapindan nibsrtya 296 kakapinde pravistas
tavac chukapranas 297 caflcupute nivasino rajapinde pravistah.
yavad raja kakam hanti, tavac chabdam krtva palayitah. etat
kautukam vikramadityavidyavatyav eva janito 298 na ’nyas trtlyah.
tatah praptanijapindo raja ’njalim abadhya vidyavatlcaranau
vavande. dhanya ’si, putri. nijapitaram asvasaye ’ty nktva raja
nijantahpuram ajagama. vivaham atyajat. purvavat prajah
pratipalayam asa.
§ 24. etasmat svakvyantahpuram raja tatyaja. antabpurad raja
virakto ’bbut. suhrado nama 299 mantri rajanam viraktaih jnatva
cintayam asa: nilagireh parvatasya raja nilo nama. tasya duhita
lilavati. tam raja parinetum 300 vicaritavan. rajnah karano 301
lipitva vivahartham sistan abuya presayam asa. te tatra gatva
nllam yacitavantab. pattraih 302 ca dattam. nilena 303 rajna pattram
patbitam. kanyayah prartbanam pattrabhiprayena jnatva punas
tan rajno vikramadityasya kusalam 304 papraccho ’vaca: bho sistah,
yada mama kanya vikramadityam 305 vrnoti tada ’smabhir datta.
punas taih sardham raja svabhavanam gatah. patantar 306 kanvam
samahuya tesam agre raja 307 lilavatlm papraccha : he putri, raja
vikramadityas tvam prartbayate. tayo ’ktam: he pitah, evam ma
84
M. B. Emeneau
vada. tavat tvam srnusva. samahito bhutva rajno vikramadityasya
bahvyo naryas 308 tah sarvas tailakarinyah. sa vadati : he sistah,
vidyabalena jnayate maya. param tu yatha tailakaragrhe yena
path! gacchanti, tanmargarh 309 raj a vikramadityasya 310 ’gre vacmi.
te rajno ’gre gatva tat samueuh. 311 karpatikavesena raja tatra gatva
kautukena mlam 312 samahviya provaca tad vacah: he raj an vikra-
madityo ’ham. yal lllavatya bhanitam tat pramanam va hasyam
va krtarii taya, tat sarvam srotum ieehamah. raja sa lajjitas tasya
’tithvarii vedoktaprakarena krtva provaca: bho rajan vayam na
vidmah. lilavaty eva janati. param tatra gacchamah. raja vikra-
madityena saha kanyapuram gatah punah patantaram 313 lila-
vatlm 314 samahuya punah papraccha : katham vikramadityasya 315
striyas tailakarinyah. sa vadati: rajan, tailakarena ’tmgrhabhyan-
tare vivaram khaditam. tad vivaram vikramadityasya prasada-
madhve sphutitam. tanmargena ’hany ahani 316 tailakarasya grhe
sarvah strivo gacchanti. catvarah purusa vaitalikah 317 sandhair 318
anltah. te rajnim ekam paryankam samaropya tatra nayanti. te
tailakarena ’hany ahani 319 kupe patitah prayatnena. evam taila-
karena bahavo hatah. etat sarvam vrttantam vikramadityena
srutam. 320 punas tarix prcchati : he sundari ... 321 te vaitalikah
kena ’pi yatnena muncante. 322 te svastha grhe gacchanti. rajai ’tad
vacah srutva svapuram agat.
§ 25. ekada raja bahyakaksayam 323 svaklyam alamkaranam
dipalaye dhrtva ’nyad vesam samadhaya dvary upavistah. tatra
sandhair vaitaliko 324 dhrtah. tatra paryarikaih skandhe krtva
tailakarasya grhe gatah. paryankam bhumau nidhaya parivartitah
san slghram pracalitah. rajna cintitam : asya gurucaranau patitau.
ayarn raja bhavati. iti vicarya tailakaram prati praha : he tailakara,
ayam raja ’gacchati. 3-5 bhavata hantavyah. tailakaras tadvacanac
chigram samutthitah. khadgam grhitva pascat pradhavutah. tavad
raja vivaran nihsrtya 3-3 bahyakaksam gatah. tatra vastradikam
grhltxa svacat\ are gatah. tailakaro ’pi rajanam na labdhva punar
grham agat. atha raja cintitavan: vidhatas tailakaram katham
ghatayis}-ati. yatho ’ktam :
ayur vittarn grhachidram mantram ausadhamaithunam
vratadanapamanam ca nava gopvani sarvada. (11)
param yatnam krtva vadhisyami.
§ 26. ekada raja svavayasyan samahuya sramastbanam vilo-
kayam asa. tatra gatva tailakaram samahuya kathitavan : bho atra
85
A Story of Vikrama’s Birth and Accession
bhavata sramah karvah. teno ’ktam : badham iti. sa tv aindra-
jalakaih janati. aindrajalena nityam eva sramam kaToti. ekada
raja sa tailakaro ’pi pratahsamdhyam samayatau. 327 parasparam 328
ehidranvesinau 329 khadgasramam cakratuh. tada rajna raksasas 330
cintitah. sa tu cintitah san samayatah. tailakaro ’pi tau dvau
vilokyai ’ndrajalam samasritah. tatra tabhyam tailakaro hatah.
tasya deham sinsipavrkse baddhva raja ’ntahpuram agamat. evam
raja lilavatim vivahya niskantakam rajyam karoti.
§ 27. etasminn antare kako ’py nddiya samudratire bubbuk-
sito 331 mrtakam ekam yoginam bahuvayaskam dirghasmasrum
dvitiyarahitam drstva kakapindam parityajya yoginah pinde pranan
pravesayam asa. utthito yogi jlrnakanthah 332 paridhaya desan-
taram paryatan sarvakamadam ekam tamrasthallm alabhat. tam
adaya kare yogi vikramam ujjayanim 333 agamat. yatra ’ste vikra-
madityah sabhayam samupagatah. yogi rajanam drstva ’sisam
dattva tamrasthallm rajfie pradat. 334 raja praha: yogin, sthall-
gunan kathaya. 333 yogi praha : raj aim abhilasitam kamam purayati.
yad eva manasi ’ksyate, tad evai ’sa dadati. raja sascaryam aha:
3 'ogin kimartham Idrslm 336 bahugtmam sthallm adah. 337 yogi praha :
raj an rahovakyam katham sabhayam bravlmi. (Then commences
the frame-story of the Vetalapahcavihsati.)
I append commentary on a few passages.
§3. sodasavarsiky antardasa yad ullanghya yasyati, “there is
an intermediate condition (for this astrological term, see BR and
the places there referred to) at the age of sixteen years, which (yam
is expected ) yad, if correct, is an indefinite neuter and distinctly
curious grammar) he will transcend and attain (i. e. kingship;
or perhaps, get away).” Vikrama’s adventures in his sixteenth
year are meant.
§ 5. ekottarasataparthivapujana. The sequel shows that this is
worship of 101 forms or “names” of Siva ( parthiva ), embodied in
a like number of clay images ( parthiva ) or perhaps merely clay
balls (cf. pindikah below, unless this means “pedestals”). The
operation v i-sarjanam is perhaps the casting of the images into holy
water at the conclusion of the rites. The two sentences : vedokta-
vidhina . . . visarjanam, are a general statement describing the
procedure usual in a rite of this kind, if the reading pujayanh is
correct rather than pujayati. I have not found any mention of this
whole rite elsewhere.
86
M. B. Emeneau
§ 6. 28 and § 13. 25. For the ms. °rtyuha° I have read °rtvik°
and made the necessary corrections to produce good Sanskrit.
The compound samanta° then is “vassals, chief minister, priests,
domestic chaplain, and spiritual adviser(s).”
§ 22. The bride passes irrevocably into her husband’s power
when she has taken seven steps from the south to the north of the
fire in the marriage ceremony; Manavadharmasastra 8.227 and
the Grhyasutras — Sankhayana 1.12.11 (see Oldenberg’s note in
SBE 29) and 1.14.5, Paraskara 1.8.1, Asvalayana 1.7.19,
Khadira 1. 3. 26.
§ 23. 17. The curious word-order sa ’vocad rajanam is not with-
out parallel in this text; ef. § 6. 4 rdjd sunvor vacah, srutvd prdlia
'tmiyfin panksakdn ; § 6. 6 manoramasutasyd ’dya pasyantu hara-
pujanam ; §24.17 rdjd . . . nllaiii samdhuya provaca tad vacah..
However, another emendation is possible: sa ’vocat: rdjan maye
etc. But this would result in repetition of the vocative in the same
sentence, unless, indeed, we emend the word after uta to rdjd.
§25. This episode is obscure ; the darkness might lift if we had
the contents of the gap indicated in critical note 321. The king’s
thought: asya gurucaranau patitau. ayam raja bhavati, is particu-
larly obscure. The sense seems to be : “ his guru has been felled.
He is (or, will become) king;” but what does this mean?
CRITICAL NOTES
1 °bhaume. 2 ° manasam. 3 °dhasa. 4 Either this or dgata must be read
for the ms. agdt. s brak°. 6 amantritam. 4 nutanmrtap° . s ndmd.
s harir iva. I give the reading, which is undoubtedly intended here also,
of the verse as it is found in the accepted text of Sivadasa. 10 maryadd.
11 nsu°. 12 saurye. is anekanarap° . Before this line, the ms. has
mahasahas-ikah, a gloss, as both the sandhi and the metrical form show.
14 °ao. 45 °kan. is raja. lima. 1S manoyatam. 49 °nta. 20 kuldlayam.
21 °ni. 22 yace. 22 siksenena. 2i °kamiti. 25 Some noun is omitted. 2 e°kaya.
zi yace. 2 s bhukte. 29 syamini. so c mdtra. 31 °yaksa. 32 ittha. 22 l s
sat yam a loc. with praha, or is it merely a corruption for satimt
34 prasadam. 25 vibheda. Or emend vibibhedat 36 gayai. 37 °na.
33 °bhavat. 39 ekasminva. 40 putrd. 51 raja, i- hrdh rnaiuih uy<t. 43 yaddu-
lamdhya. 44 bhartrharis° . The name bh° is a gloss. 45 vikramadityah-
kumbhakaraputrastailakaraputras triniman. *o°pinda. 47 sak° . 4 a °ndt.
i9 °ksah. 30 ttijamrtyumukhdt. si°sahsam. 32°to. 33 So ms. Read °ntike ?
54 chrutya. ss sak° . 56 rodi. 37 dhairya. 58 akhilarh. sa °nto. Read ° vatil
so nti.~ 64 °sa, 02]curvarii. ss 0 ati. ara. 65 "ron. sovidya. ® 7 vyayap-
tayidya 0 . o*dkal°. 69 anyadeva. ™ ‘rnma. 74 sumukhed° . 12’mundtra-
karena. < 3 risadanam. 74 °bhiyat. 's°kam. ~ s Sayakena. 77 nisar° .
73 ekotara° . 79 See comm. 80 This is a half-s/ofca. si°patrena. * 2 bhcktih.
A Story of Vihrama’s Birth and Accession
87
Probably metrical originally. 84 deate. 88 vabhavatuh. 8 s pariks° .
87 The sentence so far is a half-slofca. 88 pariksana. 88 pariksantiaihbhuya.
9( > Before this word the ms. has pa°, perhaps for pdrthivdndm. 91 °tdh.
93 I have found no vernacular word that this might stand for. satikd is
the only Sanskrit word that suggests itself. 93 may a. 94 °ksa. " grh° .
99 praksanna. 97 chamapanarii. 93 uktu. 93 ° tsangikrtva. 400 samary ha.
101 ° gam. 102 0 mrtikayd . 103 For m° i° p ° , the ms. has mamldam pathat.
This is the only emendation that suggests itself. 494 ennata. u>5 pdjd.
106 °sa rgah. 107 < ‘yantam. 133 ityam. rdjnd. 1 1 11 0 1 d jn . 444 susafnta
mahamantrinrtyukapurodhasScaryah. 142 asakd. 443 Usapanarii. 444 °hari.
115 °jd sasati. 113 sah. Perhaps to be omitted. 447 rdjunam. I have
changed this to genitive, but without conviction. 148 °fawi. 413 cintasito.
Perhaps to be read cintahino. 4 20 svdduh. 424 raja. 422 °mas. 423 striyah
yahsvdmihls tistkanti. Perhaps the verb-form might be kept, ‘ will stay ’.
424 ksalayena. 4230 kdrin. 428 puspiv 0 . 427 “fail. 428 “nan. 429 sighramd-
mina. 4 so nandit °. 434 °li. 432 °li. 433 °Z». rodmi. 435 kandukiihkaromi.
436 ksatramkaromi. 427 °sdrttau. 438 rudana. 438 "mrs ya. 149 samau
bhavisyati. 444 sadati. 442 daivena siddhyati. 443 karoti. 444 So ms.
445 °lan. 448 °noduh. 447 prasthaikam grahisyati him grahisyati. 448 nadyd -
pure. 449 vartta. 45 *>°tir. 484 bahubhyantaram. 482 vadati. 483 nihkd-
sitah,. 454 °yatu. 458 °ni. 153 jacate. 487 °gri. 488 0 tarn. 483 ’ko. 480 Not
in ms. 484 vimanaso. 482 carvvarh. 4(43 °jya. 484 For m° m°, mamansena,
488 te. 488 vahasim. 487 sdhdjya. 488 vara. 489 sistdh, rtyukapurodhd anyd~
gatthah. ito °ha-h. 474 srko. 472 alisya. 473 ndgar°. 474 °matanda. 478 mahi.
476 dhanyarhtarichapanakd" , °ghata°. 477 “rucimra. 478 °ptd. 47 9 gatva.
480 ahasarlravak. 184 para. 482 mrtakaval° . 483 °rajydnimugalam. 484 °jnana°.
488 “fas. ™&syak°. 487 md. 48! 'tii. 4 S9 tyakta. 49 o kantha. Should
kanthdrh be read? 4 9 1 ratna. 4 92 "tom.. 1 s 3 sahacaryaih. 434 °keratnam.
Perhaps to be emended "keraratnam. 498 san mdsavaya varhti ndlikeratndni
dattvani. 498 ratnabhdni. 497 mahy. 498 0 sod. 499 rdjnd. 298 rajas. 294 rdjno.
292 suka. 20 a °sinemu?tau. 284 sthi. 208 prdnusyamgdn. 298 hrdityevdvUat.
Read hrdaye prdvisant 207 ’jjiya. 293 rdjnd. 299 °pye. 249 °bhrtya. 244 tikata 0 .
242 mrgapupdhvaya. 243 mamai. 244 rajan°. 248 Some word, perhaps vanesu,
is omitted. 248 jivantah. 217 krtvani. 248 daddti. 249 pddayai. 229 °ntard
sukdn dnlyatdm. 224 °r(5 jne. 222 yamscasatahkrosa 9 . 223 Suka. 22 * pari-
bhramuh. 228 kaildiopate. 228 paryate. 227 sukdsu is inserted before c°.
228 °tdte. 229 chukampaktavyah sopi samtatah. The plural is not certain,
but seems better than a masc. sg. 239 grahndti. 234 tdvantd uddiyaman-
tarvyaydvad. 232 md. 233 ruddha. 234 galim. 238 dadan. 238 ° rtha . 237 mam.
338 vrvlmi. 239 ’va. 249 tasyaiva. 241 apayasi. 242 manasarh. 243 °nf. 244 °kas.
248 hate. 248 °sra. 247 isitd chaghna. 248 athameva. 249 srantayo. 289 °dhi.
284 ydrhtum. 282 pdmtamaireyo. Perhaps read pa turn. 283 afco. 234 bhartu
nirdesd. 285 Some word, drebhe or the like, has been omitted. 258 °dhi.
257 There is an omission, -grhe gatva- brute or the like. 258 °vidyd.
259 bhartd. 289 labdhvah. 284 sukam. 282 adam. 283 hade. 284 khanm °.
288 °dina. 288 avocat. 287 yogis. 208 kirn. 289 yovat. 279 °sthe. 274 "caryyd.
2 ' !2 presayd. ns’mat 0 . 274 sokahsamd°- 278 rajnasyasutd. 278 °bhrtya.
277 yariesunakti. 278 rajan° . 279 °kam. 289 °kalpa. 284 mantri. 282 °patyanka°.
283 suka. 284 vastucchrnusva. 285 ahov° . 288 yasyati. 287 krtaV . 288 praksanni 0 .
289 °nidhya. 299 dyada. 294 sdvodhaddjanarnaye. 292 raja. 293 ’vod. 294 nicdr °.
296 ’‘prdnah. 29 s nisrtya. 297 0 prana. 298 ° raty era janasi. 299 nd md.
399 rajnah parinetu. 394 karo. The emendation is doubtful; I take karana
in the sense ‘ scribe ’. 392 The ms. has patra- throughout. 393 nt/e. 394 rdjiiau
vikramadityakusalam. 398 rj tya. 398 patantarpate. 397 rdjna. "s ndryas.
399 ° gam. 349 rdjav° . 344 samvocuh. 342 likarh. 343 pattant°. sli °ti.
315 0 syd. 348 ° genahanyakannya. 347 raitdlikdrikah. ais khandhair. 349 ’kan-
nyahamni. 329 °tah. 324 Y.’s speech is omitted. 322 muncanti. 323 vahya-
kacchayam. So also below. 324 sandhair vaikdriko. 328 gacchanti. 3213 nisrtya.
327 °yato. 32 s°paran. 329 nidr° ■ 330 rdjasas. 334 vibhuksito. s32 °tho.
Perhaps read 0 thdm. 333 nojj°. 33i praddt. 338 katha. 338 °ai. 33 * addt.
88
M. B. Emeneau
The article represents a small part of the work which I was enabled to
do on the VetalapancavihSati during my tenure in 1932-3 of a fellowship
from the American Council of Learned Societies. It is a pleasant duty to
acknowledge here the help of the Council. The manuscript in which the
interpolation treated in detail in this paper is found was one of a lot of
manuscripts which the India Office Library with its well-known courtesy
put at my disposal in 1929-30. I desire to make this partial acknowledg-
ment of the invaluable helpfulness of the India Office Library, pending
complete publication of the material I was thus able to use.
Plate I
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Tbansutebation in Paballeustio Abeanqement.
EAS SHAMRA NOTES III
James A. Montgomery
University of Pennsylvania
1. Virolleaud’s Tablet No. 2. This text, published by Virolleaud
in Syria , 1929, PI. LXII, and reproduced here as Plate 1, is divided
into several panels, in the topmost one of which only one word
survives, rbn (“our lord” ?). My enumeration of the panels, as
I-IV takes account only of the panels that follow. Dhorme recog-
nized, in his essay at interpretation. Rev. Biblique , 1931, 37-39, the
textual distinction of these four panels by the alternating use of -Ten
(“your,” fern.) in Panels II and IV, and -km (“your,” masc.) in
III, and so we may presume for the almost entirely obliterated I.
Dhorme'’ s early and prompt treatment of these tablets suffered from
the lack of final definition of several of the characters. The mu-
tilated character of the text and the cryptic form of the vocables,
apart from the obvious proper names — some of which were not
recognized in the earlier publications, have rendered interpretation
difficult.
The accompanying Plate 2 presents a parallelistic rearrangement
of the three surviving panels. For the technical reproduction of
this plate I am indebted to my younger colleague Dr. Z. S. Harris,
as I am also in his debt for his excellent advice and criticism of
this study. The panels are grouped in sections, A, B, etc., based
upon the obvious parallelisms.
This Plate gives the actual text, without corrections, save for a
few cases of faulty punctuation in the original. At once it is evi-
dent that the panels are for the greatest part repetitive, and so we
may infer, liturgical, although, as we shall see, with a crescendo of
motif. A primary result of this presentation is control of the
textual errors. Thus in C we can restore kts to the expected gentilic
kfsy. In the same group the apparent hrs must be read hry with
its parallels. In E Isnypkn is to be corrected by the parallels to
’usnypkn. Some further emendations are suggested below.
I proceed with sundry fresh diagnoses of several misunderstood
or unknown vocables. In the first place the character ’u introducing
the initial words in C, D, E, with two additional cases in E, can be
nothing else than the conjunctive waw vocalized before a consonant
with semi-vowel, as in Hebrew. As the cases here prove, this ob-
89
90
James A. Montgomery
servation corroborates the point I made in my “ Notes II,” in this
Journal, 1934, 61, although without much evidence. With this
letter = “ and,” we have for the following words at the beginning
of C, B, B, the vocables thti'n, snypkmfn. The former is evidently
the root ht’, and the form t(u)hatti‘un, “you shall make atone-
ment.” The following vocable I recognized to be composed of sny and
pkm/n, and the latter as pikemjn, “your mouth.” Casting about
for an interpretation of the evidently verbal root, I found the
Arabic sny, “ lift up,” only classical, I think, in the verb, but better
known in its derivative sanly, “ exalted, beautiful,” = Eth. sannay.
This identification has been happily corroborated for me by the
discovery of the same root in Biblical Hebrew by Prof. D. Winton
Thomas in an interesting communication to ZAW 1934, 236 ff.
Translate then, “lift up your (mouth) voice”; cf. Heb. nasa' kol.
These two phrases at beginning of E, “ you shall make atonement,”
and “ lift up your voice,” are followed by “ with your mouth.”
(For ’ap in this sense, in Epic C, see this Journal, 1934, 64; in
panel III the ‘u before the noun is an error.) In the same group,
E, there follows evidently “and with the x (an illegible word) of
your soul, and with the Jett which you will ktt,” again an unknown
root, the verb in intensive, denominative form, and the noun in
cognate relation. Evidently the address is not to deities (so
Dhorme) but to two choirs, male and female respectively. At the
beginning of F the same two verbs recur, thti’n being followed by
lb. possibly Ibkm, “your heart,” in which case the parallel Id. .
is an error or a misreading.
At the end of F, passing over It ' for the moment, we read, 3 “our
sacrifice we shall sacrifice,” imperfect tense, as the following im-
perfects prove (vs. Dhorme, “we have sacrificed our sacrifice”).
There follows hie t‘ nt'y hw nkt nkt ; the construction is obvious:
“ this is the f we shall t'y, this is the nkt we shall nkt,” the second
verb representing nnkt, with assimilation of radical n. The root t'y
I can now identify. The noun occurs, in sing, and pi., in Tablet 1,
line 1, (also apparently verbal t'w in Tab. 9:1), where Dhorme
translates with “ devin,” apparently from root s'y, “ to inspect.”
But the root is found in South-Arabic mt'y , mt'yt, used in parallel-
ism with root dbh, “to sacrifice”; see CIS IV no. 428; Rossini,
Chrestomathw, 261, and a discussion by Rhodokanakis in his Studien
zur Lexicographie und Gramm, des Altsudarabischen, II, 66; its
Ras Shamra Notes III
91
special nuance is not yet known, 1 There follows in H : “ let it be
lifted up ” to the gods as named; the verb yattasi ' is Ifteal; for the
sacrificial use of the root cf. Ps. 96 : 8, etc. Thus the several panels
after directions for a choric liturgy terminate in a declaration of
the performance of the sacrifice as culmination.
But also the introductory theme in each panel is sacrificial. In
A, panel III opens with slcrb tr, obviously “ present (Shafil — cf. the
similar use of Heb. Hif.) a bull”; this is paralleled in IV with
tb Imgpr; the first word is the imperative “repeat” (and so the
verb in the Epics) ; the second is infinitival noun from a root gpr.
I can provisionally only relate this root to Akk. kapdru, “ to cut.”
The sacrifice appears to have been of the primitive kind, with the
mere cutting of the throat of the victim (see Wellhausen, Reste
arab. Heidentums, 114 ff.), or with the cutting of the victim to
pieces, as in the covenant sacrifice, e. g., Gen. 15. For the fol-
lowing enigmatic msrmsr, in both panels, I can only suggest the
Akk. root masaru, again “ to cut.” For such intensifications of a
root I may refer to Eitan in JPOS 1, 180 ff. ; cf. Is. 29 : 9. There
follows in III of A the vocative, “ sons of Ugarit,” in IV “ house
of Ugarit”; but I think that in the latter case bt is error for bnt,
“daughters (of Ugarit),” as appropriate to the female choir
addressed.
There comes the crux in this liturgical composition, dependent
upon a sacrifice, in B, C, D. In C occurs the thrice repeated list
of six peoples, specified generically with the term ’ulp, “ tribe,” Heb.
’elep; or the word may be vocalized ' ullupe (pi.), “ chiefs,” = Heb.
'all-up, used of the Horite chieftains in Gen. 36 ; see for review of the
discussion Ginsberg and Maisler, JPOS 1934, 259. The last four
peoples were promptly identified : the Hurrians, Hittites, Alashians
(of Cyprus), the Subareans. The second, I) Amy, was connected by
Dhorme with the alleged Greek Didvmaeans ; for the first term,
Ktsy I may compare the Kadousioi noticed at length by Kent in
this Journal, 1934, 45, and also the Eatteshiss’a in Gotze’s An-
nul en des Mursilis, 165. In III of B npy occurs five times in con-
struction with a following noun, the last two of which are the god’s
name Ugar (patron of Ugarit) and the royal name Nkmd, both
1 Supplementary I note that the root occurs in the colophon to Epic
text A just published by Virolleaud in Syria, 1934, 241, indicating a
function of the “ chief of priests,” i. e. as t'y of “ king Nkmd,” that is,
his sacrificiant; the noun is apparently of kattal formation.
92
James A. Montgomery
well known in these texts. The preceding trmn may be error
(easily induced by similarity of signs — yet trmn occurs elsewhere)
for Tkmn, the chief deity named at end of group H. 1 2 The first
word in the series, ym’n, cannot be Yawan, “ Ionians,” with Dhorme,
whether philologically or contextually. In IV of B there is a varia-
tion from III. I think we must amend to read npy ’ugr, as in III,
the following hmyt ’ ugrt is then the god’s epithet. Recognized by
Dhorme as = Heb. homah, “ wall,” I take the word to be similar
to Biblical epithets and ascriptions of Deity as “the wall,” and
“ who-is-roundabout,” e. g. Ps. 125: 2; Zee. 2:9; and still more
to the point may be recalled the enigmatic phrase addressed to the
Prince (i. e. patron deity) of Tyre at Eze. 28 : 14: “ Thou art the
encircling Cherub.” The following npy ntt I cannot interpret;
may the second noun be parallel to ’itt, “ woman,” found in Epic C,
a development from Arabic ‘untay, and mean “ women,” — and so
appropriate to the female choir ?
The obscure npy Dhorme translates with “ expulse ! ” sing, impv.,
with the following noun as object. But we can hardly expect such
a ban to be placed upon the native god and king. As from the same
root I propose a noun which may be expressed by the magical term
“ aversion ”; it is the ban of (laid by) the gods and the king upon
the hostile peoples named in C. Then the very prosaic repetition
of those names is explained ; the “ word ” of a magical rite includes
the explicit and repeated naming of the object. In C order is given
to the two choirs to pronounce these names. In D the several cases
of initial ‘ulp is to be rendered as plural, “the tribes (chieftains)
of your hbt, of your mdll .” The former word may belong to the
root hwb/hyb, and in its construction mean “(those) in your debt,
in guilt towards you ” ; and the second may be from the root dll,
dll, zll, in Arabic, Aram., Heb., and mean “(those) of your despite,
contempt.” At end of D we read ’ulp kr paralleling two mutilated
phrases ; I have no key to the riddle.
In H there is the sursum to the gods: “to the Father of the
Divinities, to the circle of the Divinities”; then in alternating
1 This divine name, occurring also at 1: 3, 6; 3: 31. has been identified
by Dussaud (Syria. 12. 70), Bauer (ZAW 1933, 100), with Kassite
Sukamuna. but this is denied by Albright (JPOS 1934, 107) by reason of
the distinction of k and k. As for trmn it occurs probably at 1 : 15, at
1 : 12 in the form trmnm (in both cases in god-lists) ; and now it appears
in ViroIIeaud's fresh text, p. 241.
Ras SJiamra Notes III
93
form, II, “ to the company of the Divinities,” III, to Tlcnin the
Father of Years” (all these theological terms being found else-
where) ; then IY unites these two latter terms in a final crescendo.
Finally, at the end of H, at least in III and IY, occurs the enig-
matic hn 'r (in IV the second word is written in sprawling fashion
to indicate the end). I can only suggest that the phrase means,
“ Behold, he (the god) is awake.” (Both words occur in the Epics,
the root € ur in Hif . at A vi 31, as also otherwise in intensive forms) .
This then is the pronouncement of the successful culmination of
the rite. The application of this verb to Deity is frequent in
Biblical usage, e. g. Ps. 44: 24; 59 : 5, and in particular note “ the
Lord’s Remembrancers ” of Is. 62 : 6. Most interestingly the phrase
throws light upon Elijah’s satiric taunt to the Phoenician Baal-
priests : “ Call with a loud voice, for he is a god . . . perhaps he is
asleep and must wake up ! ” (1 Ki. 18:27). And, supplementarily,
Dr. J. Finkel has given me another striking parallel, at Hab. 2:19:
“ Woe to him who says to a timber, Awake ! — Arouse thee ! (*im),
to a dumb stone.”
A definite progression is to be noted in these groups. A contains
the order for sacrifice ; B gives the statement of the “ aversion,”
followed in C, D with the naming of the hostile objects; E is a
summons to expiation and to song. F and G express the occurrence
of the sacrifice in the first person plural, H the “ elevation ” and
destination of the sacrifice in the passive mood; at the end is
chanted the oracle that “ the god is awake.”
This study adds an illustration to the liturgical art of Has
Shamra, already capitally presented by Dr. Harris in this J ournal,
1934, 80-83. The bearings of our text upon the forms of Hebrew
psalmody are manifold.
2 . Supplementary Notes to Tablets 3, 15. 3: 1. byrh — smtrg :
i. e. “ in the month — ,” and in line 3 “ on the 13th (day?),” i. e. a
date; then read samtirg(m),“ I have given word,” an introduction
to the document. For such use of the root rgm cf. Tab. 18 and the
tablet published by Dhorme in Syria, 1933, pp. 235 ff.
3 : 5. Translate whm ‘it, “ and so it is.” Understand the final
stm yd as satti-ma yad%, “and I have set my hand,” i. e. as notarial
signature to the document. Cf. Heb. natan yad, and the equivalence
of “ hand ” and “ name ” at Is. 56 : 5.
3: 15. The text reads: bt sbn—ivb'lh ddy ' my ’iwrnr ‘ alnr 1‘ahdt
94
James A. Montgomery
’aly ydn mnm wbnh. Translate: “The house of 8b n — and its
owners, my friends, my relatives, ’Iwrnr (and) ‘Alnr for a posses-
sion for me. Our hand, Mnm and his son(s).” To be sure, the
preposition ’al would be unique. I take I’ahdt to be identical with
ninx^ at Gen. 23 : 9. As for the name Mnm, it occurs, as has not
been recognized, in the tablet of Dhorme’s noticed above, lines 17,
17: mnm rgm, “Mnm has spoken.” The gentilic sbny occurs in
Virolleaud’s fresh text, p. 241, and throws light upon our Sbn.
A note may here be added on * iwr , an element of the first n. pr.
It occurs in the name of the writer of Dhorme’s tablet cited above,
’iwr-sr, which Yirolleaud, Syria, 1934, p. 83, has rightly identified
with Hurrian Ewiri-sarri. See further the remarks made by Speiser
on the Hurrian element iwri in his Mesopotamian Origins, 145 f. 3
Also it occurs in Tab. 28 in the form 'iwrn. I am inclined to refer
to this origin the perplexing name of the Jebusite whose threshing-
floor was bought by David, 2 Sam. 24 : 16 ff. The Hebrew tradition
of the name varies remarkably, as is notorious, not only as between
Ktib and lyre, but also within the Ktib. At v. 16 I\ t. presents
niTN (preceded with the article !), vs. runN, and this is uni-
versally supported by the Greek transcription Orna. Punctuate then
as 'Ewrina, We may then possibly explain the obscure phrase at
v. 23 : “All of it gave Araunah (sic) the king to the king.” Now
’iwri means ‘king’ (so Speiser) ; is the Jebusite’s epithet a gloss
to his name? Finally may the name of David’s ‘ Hittite ’ captain
*YTN go back to the same origin as Ewrina ?
* [The XllZ1 name Iricl -^rri is not uncommon with persons of prominence;
cf. e. g., Ilr-m-sa rri mar Ki-in-zi-ia iangu sa dAdda “ Irwi-sarri, son of
Kinziya, priest of Adad”; Chiera, Xuzi I. 13. 39. E. A. S.]
A HURRIAN AFFRICATE OR SIBILANT IN RAS SHAMRA
Zellig S. Habbis
University of Pennsylvania
In their valuable article “ Semitized Hurrians in Syria and
Palestine,” 1 H. L. Ginsberg and B. Maisler discuss the name ’iwrzr
from a recently found Ras Shamra tablet. 2 They note that the
sign here transcribed z is not the usual s of the Ras Shamra alpha-
bet, and suggest that it is a Hurrian sibilant, transcribing it z.
This is a most excellent suggestion, well borne out by the evidence,
and the following remarks are intended merely to offer additional
material.
The character under discussion is a two-edged sign, similar in
construction to the three-wedged s. It occurs but rarely and is
generally regarded as a mere variant of the s sign 3 * * ; it is not even
mentioned in the tables of the Ras Shamra alphabet as constructed
by various scholars. It is by no means certain, however, that var-
iants existed at all in this script, and before discussing the evidence
for this sign it might be best to Teview what is known of the script
in general. For the writing in itself presents certain problems.
In the Tablets it is often unwieldy, and there are actual variations
in form in certain of the letters. Some tablets exhibit these varia-
tions consistently : in T 3, obverse, the letter r is usually written
with 6 or 7 wedges instead of o, while m and g are also peculiar ;
in T 9 n has 4 wedges instead of 3, r 7 ; in T 12 h and n each have
4 wedges. In many of the other tablets similar variant forms occur
exceptionally. It is true that the writing is in general bad in some
of these tablets, especially in the obverse of T 3. I he variations
are sufficiently consistent, however, to give the impression that the
script had but recently become fixed and that in some cases the
exact arrangement of wedges had not yet been settled in the scribal
school of Ugarit. We may, therefore, have here an indication that
1 .IPOS, 1934, 243 ff.
1 The Ras Shamra texts will be referred to as follows: Tablets T. Syria
1929, 304 ff. ; T a , ib. 1933. 229ff.; T’, «6. 1934, Toff.; T*. ib. 1934. 14S;
T 6 , ib. 1934, 244 ff.; Poems A, ib. 1931, 193 ff.; B, ib. 1932, 112 ff.; C, ib.
1933, 128ff.; A sup., ib. 1934, 226 ff.
a Thus Albright, JPOS 1934, 108 (ef. also his treatment of the words
discussed below) ; Dhorme, OLZ 1933, S.
7
95
96
Zellig S. Harris
the Eas Shamra script did not have a very long tradition behind
it at the time when these tablets were written. In the poems,
however, there is no question of such variability; the writing is on
the whole excellent, every character is definite in form, and there
are no deviations from the “ correct ” arrangements of wedges.
If, then, the tablets do indeed betray an early stage of the script,
they must be somewhat older than the poetic texts. At all events,
the script had certainly become standardized by the time the poetic
texts were written.
The standardization of the script is also seen in the spelling,
for the orthography is fixed throughout. 4 There are no variant
spellings in either the poems or the tablets. This in itself may not
be sufficient proof of a long tradition, for the consonantal writing
is etymological and would therefore have been easier to maintain.
Even foreign words, however, have a set spelling, as for example
in the name ‘ushr in T 13 and Syria 1931, p. 389, and in the various
frequently repeated Hurrian words in T 4. It may be therefore
assumed that the scrip in the poems is well normalized and that
haphazard variations of signs are not to be expected. 5
The casual occurrence of a s with two wedges for the usual form
with three, would, then be quite surprising. Actually, however,
there is no such irregularity, for we find the two-wedged sign used
as a distinct character. It appears only in certain words, and then
eonsisently each time those words occur. The sign is rare in the
‘There are, incidentally, but few errors (i.e. confusion of similar
letters) in the poems, and even the tablets are not too badly bungled.
° 0ne P 03sib,e variant is the elaborate s, Virolleaud’s and Dhorme’s s„
Albrights no. 17 {JPOS 1932, 187), which is accepted as a variant of the
usual s sign. It is entirely absent from the poems, but is found in T 1 : 9
(fcsm; cf. ksm, 3: 19?), 12: 11 (hswn; cf. hswn, 12: 3?), 33: 7 (ks’u
b'lt; cf. ks'u ' ilt , 23: 2). 46: 4 (-fu), T 3 A 2, 7, B 14 (’ass-), 17 and
in the word SSw, “horse.” T 3 A 4. 0. 10, B 31, 32, now also in T s 1: 6
( arsn) , 15 (sdy). In all these tablets the usual s also occurs. In all
the eases abo\e where words with s have been compared with similar ones
in s. Bauer (Das Alphabet von Ras Scliamra, p. 33) considers the two to
..e \ariant spellings of the same word. The evidence seems to bear this
"Ut. The consistent use of s in sstc (a non-Semitic word) would, however
argue for a special value for this sign, while its absence from the poems
may also point to its having originally represented a non-Semitic sound.
Its similarity to the s ( snmek ) of the early Phoenician alphabet is note-
worthy. If it is indeed a variant, its absence from the poems would a<min
-how the standardization of the writing in the poetic texts.
A Human Affricate or Sibilant in Bas Shamra
97
poems. It occurs in zrt in Aiii 5, 11 which is not to be confused
with tbsr, bsrtk, B v 88, 89 ; the passage in A iii 4-5, repeated in
10-11, reads bhlm Itpn ’il dp’id bzrt bny bnwt , “In the dream of
Ltpn El dPed, in the vision (?) of Bny Bnwt,” bzrt being b -j- zrt. 6
The sign appears also in the phrase zd ' il in A i 6, B iv 23. Here
zd is distinct from sd, “ field.” The latter is always spelled with s
(Aii 20, 34; Bv86, 118, viii25; C 13, 18, 68), whereas the z
occurs only in the sentence tgly zd ‘il ; if this were a mere variant
for s it would be hard to explain why it happens regularly in this
phrase and in this phrase only. The character occurs again in * zbt
Bv 75, 92, 99, of which nothing can be said except that in view
of its repetition the spelling with that sign is obviously definite.
It appears once more in the broken vocable ktXz-, 7 B iii 41, and
perhaps in zd, ‘ breast ’ in C 61, the meaning of which is made
definite by the context ynqm b’ap zd, ‘ sucking at the breast ’ ; 8
this word may be the same as the zd above. Lastly, it occurs in
zr'h, in A sup i 4, while in the unpublished parallel text which
Virolleaud quotes ad loc. the word appears again with the same
spelling. So much is at all events clear from all these cases, that
the sign is no variant, but a letter in its own right. Ginsberg,
indeed, has suggested 9 that the two-wedged sign is s (Hebrew
masoretic sin), the three-wedged s; the evidence does not bear this
out however, for all the words which have s in Hebrew are here
written with s : smh, sd, bsrt, etc.
It is impossible, however, to identify this new letter among
known Semitic consonants, and it is only additional evidence from
the tablets that carries the investigation farther. In the Tablets
the sign is found, in obscure context, in T 6 : 8 ( Izr -), 34 (/if-) ;7 : 5
(lyzt ?); 28:7; 30:4 {‘arzl) ; T 3 B 15 ( hzr ). Tablet 7 and 28
are Hurrian, and 30 probably so. In T 4, the only large Human
" See Montgomery, JA08 1933, 101. Cf. also ibid. Professor Mont-
gomery’s invaluable notes on the words discussed below.
7 A is used for the sign of undetermined value, Albright’s no. 8 ( JP08
1932, 187), formerly read ?; see Albright, JPOS 1934, 104 ff.
8 This phrase occurs also in C 59, where our character happens to be
effaced, and in C 24, where the word is written zd. If the writing in C 61
is correct, the z in C 24 would be an error for the somewhat similar z.
However, both the sign in C 61 and that in C 24 may be errors for f, which
is similar to both and which would be the correct letter if the word is
Id, “ breast.”
* Tarbiz 4 (1932) 380; OLZ 1933, 593, n. 1.
98
Zellig S. Harris
tablet in the group, the sign is very frequent. It occurs in 19 words,
some of them often repeated: ‘izr (18 times), hzr (15 times),
hill (also 15), hdznnk (5), s arznnk (3), ’ini (3), pzzph (2), nzr,
’ aznn , rnzgd, pnznn, ply, ’itzdn, irhnzk, dpzl, phnz-, ’iykz, ’iz-,
-Iz. In the apparently Hurrian T 4 the sign occurs in ’iz(r), pip-,
hzr, hzl (twice), and in T 5 1 in mzr and tgzn. In Syria 1931,
p. 389, in a tablet giving a list of mostly Hurrian deities, the sign
appears in pzzphnd, a name which occurs in T 4: 35, 37 without
the Hurrian ending -nd. In all these tablets the usual s also occurs,
and in no case does the one sign come for the other. It seems
fairly clear, therefore, that this is a special sign for a common
Hurrian sound which did not exist in the Semitic speech of Eas
Shamra. What sound it was is hard to tell; a priori it need not
have any connection with the s. The two remaining occurrences
of the character give us nevertheless some indication of its value.
In T 14, a list of non-Semitic deities, the name ‘azmny occurs.
This is in all probabiltv the name of the Phoenician god Eshmun,
which, in the accepted opinion, was of foreign origin. 10 This Hur-
rian sound would then have been a peculiar sibilant which in
I hoenician borrowing was taken over as s. Fresh evidence appears
now in the name 'iwrzr, identified as Ewiri-sarri 11 by Ginsberg
and llaisler, and independently by Virolleaud 12 and by Albright. 13
Finally, Professor Speiser suggests that the name Tgzn in T 5 1 : 9
may be the Hurrian Tagi-senni or Taki-senni . 14 In both cases we
again find a Hurrian sound, and one which, in cuneiform tran-
scription, appears as s.
I had discussed this S with Professor Speiser last rear, before the
name ’iwzr was published by Dhorme. He noted at that time that
10 See Albright, “ The Syro-llesopotamian God Sulman-Esmun,” Archiv
fur Orient forschung 7 (1931-32) 164 ff„ where he discusses a Hurrian name
bearing the element Sulman in an Akkadian letter from Ras Shamra, Syria
1 29. pi. LXXVI, no. 2, 11: 6, 16; the connection of the divine names
Sulman and Esmun is now complicated by the occurrence of ’ azmny =
Esmun in the Tablets.
“ On the name, and especially the element iicri, see Speiser, Mesopotamian
Origins, p. 145, n. 90.
” Syria 1934, 83.
15 Bulletin ASOR. April 1934. p. 26.
f 351 ’ A ™ arna 249 - 8 > etc., and Taku, Amarna, 51. 5, in Knudtzon,
Die m-Arnarna Tafeln. al so the many names in -senni, e. g. Puhi-senni
(listed as Buhi-senni in Gadd. cf. note 15 below).
A Hurrian Affricate or Sibilant in Ras Shamra
99
there is a sound peculiar to Hurrian which is represented by cunei-
form z in the Nuzi tablets, and which may be the sound in question.
The Nuzi tablets are written in Akkadian, in large part by Hurrian
scribes, and the spelling often shows the linguistic background of
the writers. Dr. Speiser pointed out that in these texts the Akka-
dian sibilants are completely confused, showing that the scribes
could not recognize the differences between them. In the Hurrian
proper names in the same tablets, however, s and z are kept reason-
ably distinct. 15 Since the Hurrian scribes did not hear the differ-
ence between Akkadian z and the other sibilants, this z in their own
proper names must have represented a peculiar sound, different
from the Akkadian z and distinct from their own s. Its exact value
is unknown, but Professor Speiser is of the opinion that it was an
affricate rather than a simple sibilant, for there is evidence that the
sound could be represented in writing either as a dental or as a
sibilant. To the eases which he intends to publish elsewhere, there
is now added the variation of Ni-iq-me-as 16 and Nqmd, 17 if indeed
it is phonetic rather than morphological. This variation of dental
and sibilant may yet be found within the Eas Shamra alphabet
itself, for Virolleaud reports that in an unpublished text 18 the name
Ltpn HI dp’id is written Lzpn HI zp'id . w There must have been
more phonetic peculiarities in Eas Shamra than the writing betrays.
We have here, then, a Hurrian affricate or sibilant. Its use in
Hurrian words in the tablets is hardly surprising. What is of
particular interest, however, is the use of this letter in apparently
Semitic words in the poems. Ginsberg and Maisler recognize this
Hurrian character, outside of Hwrzr, only in T 4 and 7 and in
18 For the Nuzi tablets and the Hurrian names in them, see Gadd, Revue
d’Assyriologie 1926, 49 ff. ; Speiser, “ New Kirkuk Documents Relating to
Family Laws,” Annual ASOR, X, p. I, and “ New Kirkuk Documents
Relating to Security Transactions,” JAOS 1932, p. 350; 1933, p. 24.
18 Virolleaud, Syria 1934, 243. The name comes from a Babylonian
letter found at Ras Shamra and announced in C. R. Acad, des l user, for
Dec. 2, 1932, where it was rendered Kiqmeaz.
IT King of Ugarit, in the colophons in A sup. vi 56, and the end of B viii.
18 A “ hymn to the moon,” Syria 1934, 82, mentioned also ibid. 1932,
143, n. 1.
18 The sign here represented as z is Albright’s no. 9a ( JPOS 1932. 187),
now transcribed z by him (JPOS 1934, 105) and s by Virolleaud. In the
same unpublished text Virolleaud mentions zhrm for thrm, showing what
may be a regular variation in that text.
100
Zellig 8. Harris
Syria 1931, p. 389 ; they divorce it completely both from the three-
wedged s and from the two-wedged sign as it appears in the other
tablets and in the poems, assuming the existence of two two-wedged
signs, the one, Hurrian, in the tablets just mentioned, and the
other, Semitic, everywhere else. The sign which they recognize as
Hurrian is, however, the same as the z elsewhere. The only differ-
ence between the z in these tablets and elsewhere is calligraphic, a
difference noticeable in the other signs also. The Hurrian value
of this character must therefore be recognized in all its occurrences,
e. g., in the name 'azmny in T 14, and in the poems. It is this last
phenomenon which is linguistically the most interesting. Why
certain Semitic words should be written with this sign or pro-
nounced with this foreign sound, is difficult to explain. The con-
tact between the two linguistic communities of Hurrians and
Semites at Ugarit may well have led to certain contaminations and
to changes in the pronunciation of some words, depending always
on the individual history of each word. For that matter, since
none of these words have been definitively identified, they may be
merely semitized loan-words, retaining the sound of their original
Hurrian sibilant. Beyond this point it is hard to go at present.
Further occurrences of the sign will surely aid in explaining its use.
BRIEF COMMUNICATIONS
The Origin of the Alphabet of Ras Shamra and its Bearing on the
Origin of the Phoenician Alphabet
In a paper read before the Prussian Academy of the Arts and
Sciences on January 11, 1934, Professor Erich Ebeling of Berlin
ascertains that “ das Kas-Schamra Alphabet aus den einfachen
Zeichen des babylonischen Keilsehriftsystems, die bekanntlich als
Silbenzeiehen Vokal und Konsonant in sich vereinen, entwickelt
worden ist.” 1
The present writer reached essentially the same conclusion be-
fore Ebeling's paper had been published differing only with regard
to the derivation of the Eas Shamra characters from their Baby-
lonian models in the following instances :
No. 1 = V. from Babyl. an , and not from a.
No. 3 = \ : from Old-Babyl. un, and not from Babyl. u.
No. 4=6: from Babyl. ba ; E. from Babyl. hi.
No. io«=A 2 (6): from Babyl. hu; E. from Old-Babyl. ha.
No. 15 = Z : from Babyl. la ; E. from Babyl. lu.
No. 20 = ': from Babyl. en; E. from Babyl. u, ha.
No. 22 = 5!: from Babyl. zu/su; E. from Babyl. za.
No. 25 = r: from Babyl. ra; E. undecided between ur and ra.
Professor Ebeling bases his argument for the Babylonian origin
of the Eas Shamra characters solely upon the similarity between
these characters and certain signs of the Babylonian cuneiform sys-
tem. I would stress in addition the historical situation during the
middle centuries of the second millenium b. c., when Babylonian (or
rather “Akkadian”) was the lingua franca in the Near East
while the Eas Shamra alphabet was being developed ; it is logical
to assume that the Eas Shamra characters had cuneiform signs as
models. The Eas Shamra alphabet probably compares with Baby-
lonian cuneiform writing as the Sinaitic alphabet compares with
the Egyptian hieroglyphs.
1 Sitzungsberichte der Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften,
Philosophisch-Historische Klasse, Sitzung vom 1. Februar 1934. p. 11.
101
102
Brief Communications
After this consideration of the Babylonian origin of the Eas
Shamra alphabet it is surely pertinent to inquire whether the
Phoenician alphabet might not have developed out of the Eas
Shamra script. Even a superficial comparison between the Eas
Shamra characters and those of the Phoenician alphabet reveals
certain striking similarities between the two scripts. Some of the
differences between the two alphabets might be explained by the
change of wedges into straight lines and the ultimate direction of
the writing from right to left instead of from left to right. 2
I submit, therefore, that the Phoenician alphabet and all alpha-
bets derived from it go back to the cuneiform script rather than
to the Sinaitic alphabet. Concerning the latter view, which is held
by Professors Olmstead and Sprengling, Dr. Plight has this to say :
“ Their argument on the point in question is based for the most
part, however, upon the similarity of form between corresponding
characters in the two alphabets. So far as this argument is con-
cerned one can see as much evidence for the derivation of certain
Eas Shamra characters from the Canaanite-Phoenician as from
the Se'irite-Sinaitic.” 3
Trude Weiss Bosmarin.
New York.
A Note on the “Description of the Holy Land and of the Way
Thither” by Ludolph Von Suchem {1350)
Aubrej Stewart, in his preface to Ludolph Von Suchem’s
Description of the Holy Land, which he translated for the Palestine
Pilgrims Text Society in 1896 (London), comes to the conclusion
that the original was written in 1350; this date is printed on the
front page of this book just below the title. I find, however, that
there is some doubt about the accuracy of the date in question.
In Ch. XXXII, entitled “Ancient Babylon, or Baldach” we
read : “ I will tell you somewhat about the loss of this city of
Baldach. according as I have read th ereof in the chronicles 1 and
E TsT^ ° f detaUed argUm6DtS had t0 be ,eft out for lack of
rZJfimX' ilph * 1 ' 1 0rlg, ” ! ”
1 According to Stewart, the reference is probably to Saithoni Armeni
Brief Communications
103
histories of the kings of Armenia, and have heard from a right
truthful knight who was there at the time. In the year of our
Lord 1268, when the Tartars had conquered all the kingdoms of
the East, Ayco, the then King of Armenia, of his own accord pro-
ceeded to the great Khan, the Emperor of the Tartars, to visit him.
Ayco was kindly received by him, because so great and singular an
honour had been shown him, that kings should of their own accord
visit him and come to meet him, whereat he was much pleased and
honoured the king with many presents. In process of time, when
the King of Armenia was about to return home, he asked the
Emperor to grant him five boons ” (pp. 13, 74).
This statement contains three serious errors.
1. The Armenian King Ayco, mentioned by von Suchem, was
the Kang of Lesser Armenia, Haitum I (1226-1270), while the
Tartar Khan in question was Manku Khan (1256-1259), Haitum
I left for the court of Manku on Eeb. 4, 1254 and returned on
June 5, 1256 ; the year 1268, in which the trip is placed by von
Suchem, cannot represent the correct date.
2. The Baldach of von Suchem is Baghdad, which was taken by
the Tartars, aided by the forces of the Armenians and the treachery
of its own commander, on February 5, 1258. The Mohammedans
were ruthlessly butchered, but the Christians were not molested
because of the intercession of the Armenians and other Christians
then in the army and at the court of the Tartars.
3. Yon Suchem states that “about the loss of this city of
Baldach ” he has “ heard from a right truthful knight who was
there at the time.” From that statement we are to infer that this
truthful knight was actually present on the battlefield at the fall
and capture of Baghdad by the Tartars in the year 1258. Kow if
von Suchem wrote his Description of the Holy Land in 1350, 92
years must have elapsed by then since the fall and capture of
Baghdad. And if he heard this story on his first visit to the
Orient (about 1336) his informant must have been at least 100
Historic Orientals, in Vol. II of Vincent of Beauvais’s Fragmenta. This
Armenian chronicler is really Haitum, prince of Gorigos, whose work is
entitled Liber Bistoriarum Partium Orientis. In a French MS now in t e
Bibl. Nat. of Paris (No. 12201), entitled Merveilles du Monde , is included
an excellent copy of the Haitum Chronicles, mentioned above, together with
forty -three splendid illustrations.
104
Brief Communications
years old, or he could not have taken part in a battle fought in 1258.
It follows that we should place the date of von Suchem’s book
and the year of the author’s first visit to the Holy Land at a much
earlier time. If it should be found that no change in either date is
justified, then we cannot but conclude that the truthful knight was
not so truthful and von Suchem was a very gullible tourist. Or
did he make up the story to give his work a more authoritative
aspect ?
H. Kurdian.
Wichita, Kansas.
REVIEWS OF BOOKS
A Guide to an Exhibition of Islamic Miniature Painting and Book
Illumination. By M. S. Dim and. New York: Metropoli-
tan Museum of Abt, 1933. Pp. ix -f- 53, with 39 illustra-
tions. $1.00.
We see from the title that this pamphlet is a guide to the exhibi-
tion which remained in the Metropolitan Museum from October
9, 1933 to January I, 1934. But it really contains a brief manual
of Mohammedan painting written in a serious, but popular, form
by a noted specialist in this field. The author was the soul, the
organizer, and the manager of this exhibition, which proved both
interesting and important to the lovers and connoisseurs of Orien-
tal Art in this country. There were shown wonderful miniatures
and bookbindings from twenty private collections, eight of them
from abroad, and from the Bibliotheque Nationale, the Musee des
Arts Decoratifs, the Louvre, and four American museums.
The book opens with a preface by H. E. Winlock, Director, and
the first chapter, dealing with Islamic calligraphy, is prepared by
Joseph M. Upton, Assistant to Dr. Dimand. The work of Dimand
is divided into five sections : The Beginning of Islamic P ainting,
The Mesopotamian school (12-13 cc.), Persian, Indian, and Tur-
kish Painting. The last chapter is devoted to bookbinding, which
is an important branch of Moslem art.
From this brief summary everyone can appreciate what a wealth
of material is concentrated in about forty pages, and the name of
Dr. Dimand is the best guarantee that the results are trustworthy.
His work can be warmly recommended to anyone who wishes to
know something of Islamic painting. The pamphlet is decorated
with 39 beautifully made reproductions of sections of manuscripts,
bindings, and of several miniatures.
Studien zu einer osttiirJcischen Lautlehre. Von Guxnar Jabbing.
Leipzig: Otto Harrassowitz, 1933. Pp. xv + 126 -f- 53.
EM. 12.
The author, a young Swedish Orientalist, studied the Eastern
Turkish dialect in 1929-1930 in Kashgar. Chinese Turkestan, and
105
106
Beviews of Books
the book under discussion is the result of these studies. First of
all, Mr. Jarring in two bibliographical lists shows a deep knowl-
edge of technical literature, and especially, of the Eussian works
which he handles quite successfully. He is not like so many Orien-
talists who think that in our time it is possible to be a Tureologist
without studying the Eussian works on the subject. Concerning
the first bibliography we can remark that a very important dis-
sertation published in 1903 by the late Prof. N. Katanov on the
Uriankhai dialect is missing, and the works of Mr. Polivanov are
uselessly mentioned because this scholar is a Japanist and only
recently, with a political aim, has turned to Tureology.
After defining Eastern Turkish, and surveying the earlier works
on the subject, the author gives us a detailed study of the vowels
(pp. 22-98). In two of the last chapters (11th and 12th, pp. 98-
128), we have an explanation of the system of the consonants. The
most interesting part of the book, with a separate pagination, is
entitled “ Materials.” It contains several extracts from some East-
ern Turkish literary works and popular songs given in the Arabic
alphabet, with a phonetic transliteration and a German translation.
The phonetic transliterations are especially useful for Tureology,
because linguistic data on Eastern Turkish are not too familiar to
European scholars. At the end the photo of a fragment of a poem
is added.
Our one quarrel with Mr. Jarring and modern philologists in
general is that their system of transliteration is exaggerated (54
signs used by Mr. Jarring!). The old great scholars. Eke W.
Eadloff, who had published many and many volumes about Turkish
Enguistics, have used a much simpler phonetic alphabet, but their
results were none the less valuable.
Die verschollene Columbus-Karie von U98 in einer turkischen
Weltkarte von 1513. Von Paul Kahle. Berlin und Leip-
zig: Walter de Grcttek und Co., 1933. Pp, 52, with 9
maps. EM. 5.
We cannot review this work without mentioning an article pub-
Eshed later on the same subject, also by Prof. P. Kahle, in the
Geographical Beview, Yew York, October, 1933, pp. 621-638, under
the title “ A Lost Map of Columbus.” In this article the same
Martinovitch, Die verschollene Columbus-Karte von lJfi8 107
question is discussed, but in a more condensed form, and only one
map is reproduced.
In 1929, at Constantinople, among several maps found in the
Seraglio, Dr. Kahle discovered a Turkish map of the Atlantic
Ocean. When he had read the Turkish inscriptions on it, he sug-
gested that it was a portion of the world map which had been
prepared in 1513 and presented by the Turkish admiral, states-
man and cartographer, Piri Eeis, to Sultan Selim I at Cairo in
1517 ; Kahle had already a special interest in Piri Eeis and had
written two works concerning his activities. Wlien our author
later studied the charts of Columbus and compared them with this
Turkish map, he concluded that the latter was a reproduction of a
lost map of Columbus of 1498. But in what way did the map of
Columbus reach the hands of the Turkish admiral? Kahle tells
us that the uncle of Piri Eeis, Kemal Eeis, had a Spanish slave
who had travelled three times with Columbus to America. He
was captured after a Turkish naval victory in the Mediterranean,
near Valencia, in 1501. Thus, this map either belonged to the
Spanish slave or was a part of the booty. And Piri Eeis repro-
duced it later as a Western portion of the world map when he was
ordered by Sultan Selim to prepare such a work.
The material given as proof by Prof. Kahle is considerable
enough and his hypothesis is possible. But he, himself, writes:
“ A complete discussion of this remarkable document and the
many problems that it raises must be reserved for a longer study
now in preparation.” We are obliged to wait, with great interest,
for the final solution of these problems.
1ST. Martinovitch.
New York City.
Ancient Synagogues in Palestine and Greece. By E. L. Stjkenik.
London: 1934. 90 pp., with numerous drawings and 19 plates;
royal oct. $3.50.
The British Academy is to be congratulated on having asked Dr.
Sukenik to deliver the 1930 Sch weich Lectures which this book
gives to the general public in printed form. Discoveries in the
field of synagogue architecture and ornamentation since the days
of Kohl and Watzinger have made a new treatment of the subject
108
Reviews of BooTcs
highly desirable, and no one is more intimately acquainted with
the field than the Archaeologist to the Institute of Jewish Studies
at Jerusalem, himself the excavator of the Beth Alpha and other
important synagogue sites. That the book is the fruitage of a
series of lectures is quite apparent, for its method is to instruct by
choosing certain of the outstanding monuments as the subject of
discussion, rather than to cover the whole field as ILrauss did in
his Synagogale Altertiimer (1928). The choice, however, is excel-
lent. It embraces the synagogues of Capernaum, Chorazin and
Kefr Bir’im from the older Palestinian series, Delos, Miletus,
Priene and Aegina from the publications of classical archaeologists,
and Na’aran, Beth Alpha and Jerash from the post-war discoveries
in Bible lands. An appendix brings important comment on the
most recent finds at Stobi, Hammath, Dura and ’Esfia.
The book is one which will delight the general reader desiring to
acquaint himself with the important facts about the most signifi-
cant of these ancient Jewish monuments. But its appeal is equally
to the scholar searching for contributions to the field of inquiry.
Three things about the publication give it special value in this
connection: first, the detailed analysis of the architecture of the
Capernaum synagogue (superseding Watzinger), second, the section
on inscriptions, and third, the discussion of the use of pictorial art
in ancient synagogues generally.
The last-mentioned topic is one that the excavations at Jerash,
Beth Alpha, Na’aran and Dura have brought to the fore. Most of
the implications involved in the existence of an ancient Jewish
pictorial art are as yet obscure. The question which everyone faced
with the evidence naturally asks himself is how the use of such
representations in synagogues can be reconciled with the com-
mands of Exodus 20 : 1 and Deuteronomy 5 : 8. Dr. Suke nik has
made the first real attempt to answer this question. His sugges-
tion is that the ancient Jews were generally more favorable to pic-
torial and even sculptural art than we have imagined, and that
only in times of national crisis was there objection to it. The
final proscription against the use of pictures in Jewish houses of
worship he places in the period between 400 and 600 c. e. This
position is thoroughly sound, but one may well wonder whether the
earlier exegetical treatment of the Old Testament passages did not
also distinguish between images that might be the occasion of
idolatry and those that did not, and whether place was not as im-
Kraeling, Ancient Synagogues in Palestine and Greece 109
portani a factor in determining the attitude toward art as time
was. Certainly the most lavish pictorial decorations are those of
the synagogue at Dura in Mesopotamia, and even in the trouble-
some second half of the first century the author of IV Maccabees ,
who lived outside Palestine, was able to contemplate a structure on
the walls of which the sufferings of the Jewish heroes were depicted.
‘In the discussion of the architectural form of the ancient syna-
gogues Dr. Sukenik gives due prominence to the basilica type so
commonly found, and implies that there was probably an earlier
type lacking certain of its features. Possibly the discoveries at
Dura will eventually permit us to construct a clearer picture of
this earlier type. The Dura synagogue is utterly unlike the Pales-
tinian edifices, and, as it agrees in many important respects with
those of Hamam-Lif and Priene (if this was a synagogue), may
well be taken as the representative of a distinct type. The fact
that it meets Jewish devotional needs more immediately and recalls
the Wilderness Tabernacle in some of its features makes it possible
to consider the Dura type as the precursor of the later Hellenistic
edifice.
To all interested in ancient Jewish life and culture Dr. Suke-
nik's newest publication can be warmly recommended as a most
satisfying treatment of a highly important and thoroughly live
topic.
Caro H. Kraeling.
Yale University.
Les Noms Magiques dans les Apocryphes Chretiens des Ethiopiens.
By A. Z. Aescoly. Extract from Journal Asiatique, 1932.
Pp. 88-137.
The author studies the magic names contained in Basset’s Les
Apocryphes Ethiopiens , with references also to the texts which
have been published by Worrell and Euringer. He finds that
many of the names drawn from foreign sources may be traced to
an origin in Jewish magical usage; this conclusion is, perhaps,
somewhat too strongly expressed. Further study, we are inclined
to think, will show a larger borrowing from the Coptic. However
this may be, every worker in the field is indebted to the author of
the present brochure for his pioneer— and very thorough— efforts
110
Reviews of Boohs
in throwing light upon a difficult and interesting subject. In the
study of the names of native origin every possible attempt is made
to find an etymological derivation. Here a higher degree of suc-
cess has been reached than the reviewer was able to attain in the
study of a lengthy text which he has just completed ; many of the
names here seem to be meaningless combinations of letters although
a large number end with ’el or yal, which would indicate an origin
at least partly Jewish. We find Aeseoly’s work so valuable that
we venture a criticism only with the hope that the author will con-
tinue his labors in this field and find it useful; that he arrange
the names in the sequence of the Ethiopic alphabet, not of the
Latin. No one is likely to use the work who is not acquainted
with Ethiopic.
Frank H. Hallock.
Oriental Institute, Chicago.
Vedic Variants. By Maurice Bloomfield, Franklin Edgerton,
and Murray B. Emexeau. Volume III: Noun and Pronoun
Inflection. Special Publication of the Linguistic Society of
America, University of Pennsylvania, 1934. Pp. 513. $5.50.
With gratifying promptness comes now to hand this third volume
of \ edic I ariants, full of interest and enlightenment. In the intro-
ductory chapter of the first volume we have read : “ For the most
part . . . the variants between text and text are based upon the
natural freedom of expression in prayers and songs of praise, and
upon the looser syntax which, compared for instance with Greek
and Latin, pervades Sanskrit from the Veda to the end of its
career. These words gave an intimation of the large significance
of the stud} and anal} sis of the variants. The first volume deal-
ing with the verb and the second volume dealing with phonetics
have indeed offered opportunity for many interesting observations
concerning grammar and linguistic psychology: this third volume
aims to include all variations in the inflected forms of such words
[nouns, pronouns, and adjectives] in the repeated mantras of the
Veda, ’ with some slight exceptions : and the material divides itself
into “ formal variants and syntactic and stylistic variants.” The
study of the formal variants is a contribution to morphology in
Barret , V edic Variants
111
Sanskrit grammar, and the study of the other variants illumines
the uses of eases, numbers, and genders, but for the most part the
uses of cases. One fact clearly emerging in this volume is that
case constructions which would at first thought seem in no wise
similar are in the variants actually interchanged to a surprising
extent: and one can hardly fail to he surprised at the number of
the variants which have their place in this volume. The variants
are interesting because “ they illumine the ways in which the whole
stock of mantra material was reworked in the course of the cen-
turies.” It might be added that those ways are many and some of
them strange.
Although the syntax of Sanskrit is looser than that of Greek and
Latin there are certainly many close parallels which come to the
mind of a student of the classical languages. The circumstances
which produced the variants in the Vedic texts have no counter-
part in Greek and Latin but in these latter languages different
cases are at times found expressing the same idea ; so in Latin we
find genitive of quality and ablative of quality with a considerable
overlapping of usage. Something vaguely approaching a Vedic
variant appears in the following lines :
quae nos materiem et genitalia corpora rebus
reddunda in ratione vocare et semina rerum
appellare suemus . . . (Lucr. 1. 58-60.)
The dative of reference as variant for possessive genitive or posses-
sive pronoun is common in Koman comedy and appears not rarely
in Augustan poetry; indeed the type optundit os mihi (Cas. 931)
is more frequent than the type auris graviter obtundo tuas (Cist.
118).
Case usages are not merely matters of syntax but are influenced
by the particular words used (e. g. some Latin nouns are defective),
by the literary form or department, and by the times. Some such
matters are set forth in this volume of the Variants, and there
seems to be opportunity for further study along such lines. Indeed
one might hope that these volumes of Vedic Variants may stimulate
studies in syntax.
The reviewer has spent some time in editing a Vedic text and
finds in this volume reason to think that he has at times too readily
“ corrected ” a case form of the manuscript; but on the other hand
112
Reviews of Boohs
has at times thought in going through this volume that some
variants may be merely mistakes in the tradition.
The volume is commended not only as sound and instructive but
also as interesting, and we may surely be permitted to express the
hope that the next volume may not be too long delayed.
LeRoy C. Basket.
Trinity College, Hartford.
Notes of the Society
113
NOTES OF THE SOCIETY
The Society’s Committee on Policy held its second meeting on Monday,
December 31, 1934, at the Hotel Pennsylvania, New York City. The session
lasted from 10 a. m. to 5 p. m., and was devoted to an exhaustive study of
changes in the Constitution of the Society as recommended by the special
sub-committee headed by Prof. Sturtevant. Another meeting of the Com-
mittee will be held in conjunction with the forthcoming meeting of the
Society at Ann Arbor. It is hoped that the present and the amended
Constitutions can be printed in parallel columns in the next issue of the
•I ourn ax. so as to enable the Society to take formal action at its meeting in
1936.
The Executive Committee of the Society authorized the Editors to apply
the balance of the sum of $200.00, which the Board of Directors set aside
for the purpose of enlarging vol. 54. 2-3 of the Journal, to the last number
of vol. 54.
The President of the Society appointed Drs. Kent and Speiser as dele-
gates of the Society to the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of
Political and Social Science, to be held at the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel,
Philadelphia, April o-6th, 1935.
Owing to an oversight on the part of our printer the title-page and the
table of contents of vol. 54 were printed on the same sheet of paper as the
last eight pages of the volume. Subsequently the printer supplied separate
copies of pages in question for the use of those who care to bind their
volumes. These copies are being sent out to subscribing libraries with the
present issue of the Journal. Members may obtain them free of charge
upon application to the Office of the Society, in care of the Tale l.niversity
Press.
Volume 6 of the Society’s Monograph Series, containing The State Letters
of Assyria, by Robert H. Pfeiffer, is now on sale. Volume 7, which will
contain A Union List of Printed Indie Material in American Libraries,
by Murray B. Emeneau, is in press.
NOTES OF OTHER SOCIETIES
A Summer Seminar in Arabic and Islamic Studies, sponsored by the
American Council of Learned Societies, will be held at Princeton Lm-
versitv from June 20 to July 31 in the coming summer. The Committee
of Direction consists of Prof. P. K. Hitti. Director, Prof. V V L. V right.
Secretary. Professors H. H. Bender, A. M. Friend, Jr., and J. T. Gerould.
and Mr.' Mortimer Craves, for the American Council of Learned Societies.
The set courses will include elementary and advanced courses m Arabic.
114
Personalia
an elementary course in Turkish, and in ease of demand courses in Persian ;
general courses in Islamic Culture and Literature, History of the Ottoman
Empire, Islamic Art, will be given by Professors Hitti, Wright, and Dr.
Aga-Oglu. Also a number of Semitists and specialists in allied fields have
been invited to give lectures, among them Professors Calverley, Montgomery.
Sarton, and Sprengling. Further information can be obtained from Prof.
W. L. Wright, 20 Maple Street, Princeton, N. J. The Seminar will be
housed in the Graduate College of Princeton, where dormitory accommoda-
tions have been provided for both men and women.
PERSONALIA
Professor James Haughton Woods, of Harvard University, died on
January 14th, 1935, at the age of seventy-one. He was graduated from
Harvard in 1887, and from the Cambridge Theological School in 1889, and
studied at the University of Berlin (1889-91) and the University of
Strassburg (1894-97). He was first appointed to the faculty of Harvard
University in 1891. He taught at various times History, Philosophy, and
Anthropology. In 1913 he was made professor. In 1916-18, and again in
1921, he was exchange professor to France. Professor Woods was espe-
cially interested in Comparative Religions, and investigated the philosophy
of India and Japan, travelling to the Orient for that purpose. He was a
member of many learned societies, and was well known as an author,
translator, and editor. He contributed to the Harvard Oriental Series the
volume on the Yoga System of Patanjali (1914). One of the most dis-
tinguished of American Orientalists, Professor Woods combined wide
interests with thorough scholarship and mastery of detail.
Benjamin F. March, of the University of Michigan, died on December
13th, 1934, at the age of thirty-five. He was one of the most promising of
American sinologists. He graduated from the University of Chicago in
1922, and attended the Union Theological Seminary the following year.
He was in China from 1923 to 1927, as a member of the faculties of the
Hopei and Yenching universities. He lectured on Chinese Art at the
Summer Session of Columbia University in 1927, was Curator of Asiatic
Art at the Detroit Institute of Arts, 1927-33, and went to the University
of Michigan in 1933. He was the author of China and Japan in Our
Museums, 1929; Standards of Pottery Description, 1934; and Some Tech-
nical Terms of Chinese Painting, to be published in 1935. He is survived
by his wife, Dorothy Rowe Mareh. and a child, Judith. During the World
M ar he served in France with Field Remount Squadron No. 305.
LINGUISTIC SCIENCE AND THE ORIENTALIST*
Roland G. Kent
University of Pennsylvania
About a yeah before I was admitted to membership in this
honorable Society, I was engaged in tracking down a review which
proved to have been used in dishonest fashion by the publisher in
his promotion circular, and while thus occupied I happened upon
the following letter sent by one Edward S. Dodgson to the editor
of The Academy , and by him printed in the section reserved for
Correspondence : 1
Sir, — To primitive man the sea must have seemed more
shiny, open, and seeable than the land, which is blocked with
hills, and covered with a hull of woods and forests. Whether
vX.rj and silua, sylua are connected with Old-English hulen,
Icelandic hylja, Gothic huljan , is for philologists like Dr. W-
W. Skeat to say. But may it not be that, just as Latin mare
appears to come from a root meaning to shine, to gleam , so the
Gothic saiws — the sea, is akin to Gothic saihivan — to see ?
In the Carpathian Mountains there are lakes known as “ eyes
of the sea ; ” and in Baskish a spring of water is called ur-hegi,
literally water-eye. The Greek is oWavds, and is thought by
some to come from «kus — swift, but is it not possible that its
etymon is the same as the Latin oculus, and other Indo-
European words meaning eye ?
Under date of the very day on which The Academy containing
Mr. Dodgson’s letter was issued, Mr. A. L. Mavhew of Oxford
penned the following protest, which appeared in The Academy one
tveek later : 2
Sir, — As a student of comparative philology for more than
forty years, and as a sincere friend of The Academy, I most
earnestly entreat you, as you value the representation of The
Academy as a literary and scientific weekly review, not to
admit letters from Mr. E. S. Dodgson on the subject of com-
* Presidential Address delivered at the meeting of the Society, in Ann
Arbor, April 24, 1935.
1 The Academy No. 1873, p. 626 (March 28, 1908).
2 The Academy No. 1874, p. 648 (April 4, 1908).
3 ,
§(! Library Ref
115
116
Roland G. Kent
parative philology. In the letter which appears in this week’s
Academy on the etymology of “ Sea,” there is scarcely a line
which does not contain a gross blunder. The letter clearly
shows that the writer is absolutely ignorant of the elements of
old English or of Gothic scholarship. There is not a single
etymology which is suggested in this astounding letter that
would not be laughed out of court by any competent scholar.
I am quite sure that if you had been told how bad the com-
munication was you would never have given it the hospitality
of your columns. I tell you now so that you may be warned
in future.
You listened to my advice on philological letters in the case
of the late Mr. Hall ; I think that it will be to the interest of
The Academy if you listen to me now, or at any rate take the
advice on the matter of some competent scholar.
The editor, thus cornered, thought to extract himself from the
position of having committed a bad bull, by appending the follow-
ing note to Mr. Mayhew’s letter : 3
We do not editorially profess to be authorities on compara-
tive philology and we decline responsibility for views expressed
in our correspondance columns. We constantly admit to its
hospitality correspondents with whom we are in profound dis-
agreement, and the responsibility for any mistakes and blunders
thej nun make must rest on their own heads. Admitting that
Mr. E. S. Dodgson’s etymology is at fault, of which there
appears to be little doubt, the value of his letter lies in the fact
that it has drawn from Professor Skeat an authoritative pro-
nouncement. Regarded from this point of view, correspondents
who write and make inaccurate statements in the columns of
The Academy are really often conferring a benefit on our
readers, since they afford the means for the exposure of error.
A rather naive view of editorial responsibility ! And if the pub-
lication of error does the readers a service if the error is later
corrected, what a field of service the newspapers of today have but
imperfectly realized, since they rarely publish the corrections of the
errors. But to return to The Academy, we find on another page
of this issue the letter from Dr. Skeat : 4
s The Academy, loc. cit.
4 The Academy No. 1874, pp. 643-4 (April 4, 1908).
Linguistic Science and the Orientalist 117
I am afraid that hardly any of the conclusions suggested in
Mr. Dodgson’s letter are likely to be accepted by the best
authorities.
The Gothic huljan is allied to the Latin celare, and cannot
be connected with silua.
The connection of the Latin mare with a root meaning “ to
gleam ” is just a possible guess, but cannot be said to be
convincing.
The Greek for <e ocean” is spelt with a kappa, and cannot
be connected with the Latin oculus, the root of which appears
in Greek with a pi, as in our borrowed word op-tics, and is
therefore not ok-, but oq-. 5
The connection of the Gothic saiws, sea, with saihwan, to
see, is impossible. It is unlucky that Gothic uses the symbol
ai in two different and unconnected ways ; but such is the fact.
In saihwan the ai represents short e, and the root takes the
form seq. But in saiws the ai is really a diphthong, and the
Germanic type is either saiwiz, or else, as Uhlenbeck writes it,
saigwiz, on the strength of a possible connection with 0. H. G.
gi-sig, a lake or pool. In other words, the forms saihwan and
saiws have nothing in common except the initial s.
One might suppose that Mr. Dodgson would withdraw from the
field; but no! he is sans peur, even if not sans reproche. He at
once writes another effusion, to which the editor of The Academy
gives space : 6
“ I am obliged to my friend Dr. Skeat for commenting on my
letter about the word ‘ Sea/ ... We cannot see or know the
origin of all the oldest words; but we are free to guess at it, in
the light of the phenomena of nature, as they meet the reason of
mankind.” No, Mr. Dodgson ; only as they meet the requirements
of linguistic science. “ How very ancient is humanity, and how
few are the languages which can boast of ancient documentary
evidence! Enljan does not resemble celare so much as saiws does
saihwan. In favour of mure meaning ‘ shining ’ one may cite
mar-mor , mor-ning. and perhaps mar- tvr, a person who enlightens
by his testimony.” Why, Mr. Dodgson, do you cite Latin, English,
5 The contrast of ok- and oq- hardly makes clear the difference in the
roots; the second root would now he quoted as oqv-.
• The Academy No. 1875, p. 672 (April 11, 1908).
118
Roland G. Kent
and Greek, all in one breath, and on the same basis ? And do you
not know that the pre-Christian meaning of martyr was “ witness ”,
and that the word got its new meaning as the result of the painful
deaths of “ witnesses ” to the Christian faith ? “I gathered from
Liddell and Scott that in the optic words, to which Dr. Skeat refers,
the root oc or ole was older than op, and that oheanos must be a
very ancient word. It may have been the name of a demon like
Neptune, and possibly referred to the western strait of the Midland
Sea, considered as the eye of the great unknown ‘whale-road’ out
beyond.” What rubbish, mixed with lack of understanding ! “ The
‘ root ’ seg, and the Germanic ‘ types ’ saiwiz, or saigwiz, are mere
matters of pedantic conjecture, without any documentary evidence.”
Yet how much better than Mr. Dodgson’s ignorant conjecturings !
Of which he makes some more: “Is not saiwala, the Gothic for
soul, seele, derived from saihwan? Does it not mean the seer?
Is not the soul, more than the eye, that which sees? Written words
are but dead letters, except for those who know what things,
thoughts, and sounds they represent. I do not think many readers
of The Academy will follow Mr. Mayhew in his attempt to stifle
free thought and enquiry about comparative philology, which is so
necessary a study ”, a praiseworthy idea, expressed by an unworthy
champion, “ if all the citizens of the world are to understand one
another and live like a happy family.” Even here I must, disagree
with Mr. Dodgson : as a comparative philologist, I do not anticipate
that the study of comparative philology will smooth out inter-
national differences and bring universal peace.
Curioush , in this four-cornered wrangle of Dodgson, Mavhew,
Editor, and Skeat, I look upon the perhaps discourteous Mayhew
as the onh one with reason on his side. Mr. Dodgson was one of
the many persons who thinks that anyone has a right to etymolo-
gize, and to get a hearing for his views ; but he was ignorant even
of the fact that there is a science of linguistics: he was no more
qualified to air his views on etymology, than a street-sweeper is to
expound views on the tensile strength of structural steel, or on the
correctness of the logarithmic tables. The editor was wrong in
admitting such trash to his columns ; as we know, it is pedagogic-
ally wrong to set error before learners (wherein I include readers
of The Academy) unless the correction follows at once, and reaches
all who read the original : even then, there is a waste of time and
space. Mr. Skeat was wrong in his dignified refutation, because
Linguistic Science and the Orientalist
119
his very judicial manner dignified his unworthy opponent’s views.
Mr. Mayhew, however, struck at the root of the matter: silliness
should not be spread abroad, in etymology any more than in any
other science. The editor would surely not have given printing
space to a communication which claimed, as a matter of scientific
fact, that sugar and vinegar would unite chemically and form
beefsteak ; no more should he befriend silly etymologies.
But whereto all this? It has not touched on Oriental science,
you may say. True: the illustrations have been from Occidental
languages ; but etymology is a science applying to every language,
and virtually all Orientalists have to devote a great part of their
time to the understanding of languages. A high percentage of
them must or should busy themselves with the interpretation of
languages : and it is to them that I intend especially to direct my
remarks from this point on. There are also others who must
utilize the results of other scholars’ linguistic researches; to them
I say: You must make yourself able to judge of the validity of
the work which others have done, or you may base your own work
on discredited theories.
For there is a science of linguistics, just as there is a science of
textual criticism, of biblical exegesis, and now also of archaeological
excavation. But comparatively few scholars in our country have
any definite idea about the science of linguistics and its methods —
even though in most of the subdivisions of the linguistic field we
have some notable exponents who rank high in the linguistic
scholarship of the world. Let us come to the main divisions of the
Oriental field, however, disregarding the rest. We may fairly
divide it into Semitic studies, with Hittite, Egyptian, and Hamitic
bordering upon them; Indo-Iranian ; Dravidian; Chinese and
other monosyllabic tonal languages; Japanese; Indonesian; Bantu.
The first step toward a scientific knowledge of a language 7 is to
draw up a careful descriptive study of it: what sounds it has, how
they are made, in what positions in the words they are found, etc.;
what variations of form, if any, are used to express the modifica-
tions of the idea expressed by the word and its relations to its
7 In the case of a langage not previously reduced to writing, this involves
the taking down in a phonetic notation a series of texts, as dictated by a
native speaker of the language. With such tasks we are not here con-
cerned, since this address is directed essentially at the interpretation of
older languages preserved in manuscripts and inscriptions.
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Roland (?. Kent
neighbors in the expression of thought; what suffixes, prefixes,
infixes are used, if any; the means of expressing the logical rela-
tions of the ideas (syntax) ; not to omit a list of the words or
roots composing the vocabulary.
Some of the Oriental languages have as yet hardly been subjected
to this careful descriptive study ; but I would pass to the next step,
the preparation of an historical grammar of related languages. In
this, the first step is the gathering of a stock of word-groups, which
seem by similarity of form and of meaning to be genetically
related. Thus Latin pater, Greek Trarrjp, Sanskrit pita, English
father are, for example, such a group of related words. In addition
to this, there must be an observation of the differences between
corresponding sounds, as that in the examples just quoted the
original sound which appears as p in Latin, Greek, and Sanskrit,
appears as f in English, at least in the initial position. From such
observations a series of inductions will give the formulation of the
sound-changes in accordance with which the various languages
which stand in relation to one another have become differentiated.
Now for the present I wish to speak only of two sets of Oriental
languages, the Indo-Iranian and the Semitic. The former are a
branch of the Indo-European, and have been well studied; their
historical study stands on a firm and valid basis. It is otherwise
with the Semitic languages: and I wish to illustrate by certain
examples, which are symptomatic, the fact that much which has
been written on the linguistics of Semitic languages is entirely
unscientific in its method. It would be possible for me to draw my
material from the published works of members of this Society ; but
I recall what the Roman Juvenal felt obliged to do when in a spirit
of revulsion at the follies of his time he started on the writing of
satire : warned by his friends of the danger involved, he announced
that he would draw his examples from those whose ashes lay buried
by the Flaminian and the Latin highways . 8 So I, out of fear for
my own safety as well as for the feelings of some of my friends,
now draw my examples from the writings of those who are separated
from us by the width of an ocean.
I wish at the outset to emphasize the fact that I am not so much
concerned with errors of fact as I am with errors of method . 9
8 Juvenal, Sat. 1. 170-1.
* My friend and colleague Prof. E. A. Speiser has contributed most gen-
erously of his time and his learning, to verify the facts of Semitic grammar
Linguistic Science and the Orientalist 121
And the canons of method which may here be illustrated are the
following :
a. There must be a careful distinction between speech, which
consists of sounds, and writing, which consists of visual symbols
indicating to the eye what the ear is to appreciate.
b. There must be a correct and consistent technical terminology.
c. There must be strict observance of the formulation that
sound-changes are regular, if the conditions are the same; if they
seem not to be, then there is some special cause affecting the
development.
d. The fact that a sound-change, as of n to l or of l to n, may
be found in one or more languages, is no evidence that it is to be
assumed as normal in some other language.
e. Only comparables may be compared with one another : thus
in an etymological comparison, words from languages not mutually
related cannot be compared — English, Hebrew, Chinese, for
example.
These are only a few matters, each (except the first) divisible
into many; but they are convenient for the development of my
thesis, that many scholars who write on the linguistics of the
Semitic languages have not acquired the technique of linguistic
science, without which their work is futile and their results may be,
and often are, worthless.
Perhaps I may most profitably take as a work for examination
the Comparative Grammar of the Semitic Languages, by De Lacy
O’Leary, published in 1923, the most recent of foreign treatments
of the subject in English. 10 Alas, he offends against the principle
that sound and letter are to be carefully distinguished, for on pages
56-7 he says, 11 “ The four letters t, z, s, and d are called in Arabic
which are involved in my discussion; and I hereby express to him my
sincere thanks. Without his cooperation in this and other ways I should
not have ventured to speak upon this topic; but the blame for any errors
that still remain must be mine, and not his.
10 De Lacy O’Leary, D. D., Comparative Grammar of the Semitic Lan-
guages: London, Kegan Paul Trench Trubner and Co., 1923 (and Xew York,
Dutton and Co.).
11 The citations from O’Leary's work, and from the works of others, are
verbatim, except that words in Oriental alphabets are transliterated in my
quotations, for ease of typography, and that words and phrases unnecessary
to my purpose are omitted, though never in such a way as to prejudice the
author’s meaning.
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Roland G. Kent
‘ covered ’, because the lingual outlet of the letter is covered by
the opposite side of the palate.” He means “ sound ” where he
says “letter”.
This is a bad beginning. I pass now to his technical terminology.
On page 29 he states : “ It must be noted that b, g, d, k, p, t are
aspirated as bh, gh, dh, kh, ph, th, in Hebrew and Aramaic by the
influence of a preceding vowel.” On page 88 he refers to the same
process as aspiration. But aspiration is the emission of a pufli of
breath at the end of the utterance of a consonant, such as we have
in English p in pin, but not found in spin nor in upper. O’Leary’s
error is in confusing aspirate with spirant : a spirant is a consonant
produced by the friction of the breath against some part of the
vocal apparatus, a very different thing from an aspirate : examples
of spirants are found in the English words the views of the faiths.
We pass to another point of terminology. On page 63 he says:
“ There are four sonants, l, r, n, and m. Of these m is allied to
the labials, n to the dentals.” Quite absurd: sonant means
voiced, emitted with a vibration of the vocal cords; and not only
these four sounds, but also 5, d, g, and their spirant variants, and
also y, tv, and 2 are sonants. However difficult it may be to find a
single term to denote /, r, n, and rn, sonant is another thing. And
then “ m is allied to the labials, n to the dentals: ” not at all, but
m is a labial, and n is a dental — no mere alliance. He forgets
himself on page 135, where he calls m a labial outright; but on
page 123 he says : “ the labials, among which we must include the
sonant labial m ; ” his trouble is that he has failed to acquire a
generic term for the stops (mutes, occlusives) b, g, d, p, k, t, so
that for b and p he must say “ labials ” and leave m aside as a
pariah. If he had said “labial stops” or “labial stops and
spirants” (including the values f and v, which are spirants), he
could then have added “the labial nasal ”; but the term “labial ”
would have included all five in a perfects proper manner, intelli-
gible to all clear-thinking linguistic scholars.
He has another term, apparently a favorite, elision, which he
uses to denote any loss of a sound or of a syllable. On page 72,
in speaking of “Abyssinian”, 12 he says: “The vowel of the
12 It is impossible to determine exactly what O’Leary means by “ Abys-
sinian . a term which he uses on page 4 (cf. also page 1), although he
summarizes the linguistic conditions of Abyssinia on pp. 22-3. In quoting
him, I am obliged to use the term.
Linguistic Science and the Orientalist
123
formative ta- is not elided in the perfect, but in the imperfect
( yetqatel , etc.) it is brought into contact with the initial radical.”
What has taken place is syncope, the loss of a vowel in an unac-
cented medial syllable : here *yataqatel became yetqatel, the synco-
pation (not elision, which O’Leary’s wording indicates) of the
vowel leading to a change in the quality of the preceding syllable.
On page 133 O’Leary has a heading “ Haplology and Elision”,
seemingly intended to cover losses of every kind : the first examples
are really examples of haplology, loss of at least a consonant and a
vowel when similar or identical groups stand in close proximity to
one another. But he never uses the word haplology except in the
heading, overworking elision for every phenomenon of loss, even
(page 136) that of consonants when another consonant of identical
or nearly identical sound is separated from it by one or at most
two vowels: this is of course loss by dissimilation, as when Latin
reduplicated perfect *ste-sti became steti (to present sto). On page
137 he speaks of the loss of a final short vowel as elision; this
might be correct if the next word began with a vowel : for elision
can be said only of the loss of a vowel before a vowel ; but he uses
it of the loss of a final vowel at the end of a phrase (“ in pause ”),
where nothing follows.
It must be clear that in these respects, which I could amplify
(I limit myself to clear cases, readily set forth), the technical
terminology of O’Leary lacks all agreement with conventional
usage, and is even inconsistent within itself. No science can be
advanced by such exposition; for science is exact, or it is not
science. Curiously, at the very outset (page 4) O’Leary has cut
out from under his feet the possibility of making his treatment
scientific by asserting that while the five main Semitic languages
(Arabic, “Abyssinian”, Hebrew, Aramaic, Assyrian) cannot be
arranged into closer sub-groupings, “ still less are we able to
designate any one of them as the parent language, or to construct
a ‘ proto-Semitic ’ as representing the mother speech.” Of course
no one of these is the parent language; but as for the reconstruc-
tion of the proto-Semitic, the comparative grammar of a family
of languages consists in that very thing, the reconstruction, so far
as the evidence carries us, of the mother tongue of the family, and
the tracing of the development from this mother tongue down to
the various later and recorded languages and dialects. O’Leary
might, better have said that there was no possibility of writing
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Roland 0. Kent
a comparative grammar of the Semitic languages, and have re-
frained from writing his volume. But how about the truth of his
statement? The Semitic languages are all quite closely similar to
one another, much more so than are the languages of the Indo-
European family; and yet the Indo-European mother-tongue has
been reconstructed to such an extent that the comparative grammar
of Indo-European languages is further advanced than that of any
other group of languages, and serves as a model for the studies of
other language-families. It is even probable that the variations
among the Semitic languages, at least among the five which O’Leary
named in the passage which I have cited, are no greater than those
within the modern Balto-Slavonic division of the Indo-European;
their differences are certainly much less than those among the
modern Indo-Iranian languages. But after denying the possibility
of a firm basis for his comparative grammar, O’Leary seems to have
gone ahead with some vague unnamed and unnamable previous
linguistic state as his starting-point: he dare not name it, for its
only possible name is proto-Semitic. 13 What does he mean (page
60) when he asserts that “ the original sounds [uncovered sibilants]
are retained, it would appear, in Hebrew alone, for there only do
we find the four non-emphatic sibilants distinguished as s, s, s, and
2 .” 14 What can he mean, except that these are proto-Semitic
sounds? And similarly, whenever he discusses the values assumed
by a sound in any Semitic language, he assumes a starting value
to which he attaches no name. Thus, on pages 65-67, he discusses
the semi-vowel w and the values which it takes in the languages;
he says (page 66) : “ Generally initial w becomes y (in Hebrew),
thus Arabic walada, Hebrew yalad, 15 etc.” What is this “ w ” and
to what does it belong, whence does it come unless from proto-
Semitic — which is proved for Hebrew by citation of an Arabic
cognate word?
In historical linguistics, it is de rigueur to state the conditions in
which a change of a sound takes place. Thus in Sanskrit, when
one original sound splits into two in Sanskrit, as when an earlier
13 German ursemitisch.
14 Passage quoted verbatim, except for omissions; cf. note 10. I make
no comment on the correctness or otherwise of the statements in the pas-
sage, as I am concerned with matters of method and not with matters of
fact.
15 Both meaning “bear” (verb), and therefore exact equivalents.
Linguistic Science and the Orientalist
125
k becomes either k or c, and an earlier s becomes either s or s, we
must (and do) specify the conditions which produce the division.
Such a problem lies before the Semitic scholar in the development
of the spirants from the stops, a phenomenon which I have men-
tioned : the condition is that the stops become spirants when they
are postvocalic. Over such statement of conditions O’Leary usually
passes lightly; thus on pages 50-53, he treats the palatals (i. e.,
palatal stops), and speaks of various shifts in their sounds without
attempting to state the phonetic environment in which the shifts
take place. (If the change is universal for the sound in question,
no definition of conditions is needed, nor is indeed possible.)
There is a flagrant example of neglect of this principle in pages
42 and 61-2. On page 42 he says : “ The most striking change of
h to Hamza 16 occurs in the preformative of the Causative stem of
the verb, where ha- itself is derived from an earlier sa-.” And on
61-2, he presents a table of examples from Arabic, “ Abyssinian ”,
Hebrew, Aramaic, and Assyrian, showing that the sibilants re-
mained sibilants in these languages, though there were some shifts
in their articulation : with that I am not concerned here, but only
with the fact that they remained sibilants. But he goes on to
say : 17 “ At a very early date it would seem that there had been
changes from s/s to h and thence in normal course to Hamza. Thus,
in the personal pronoun Assyrian su, si, 18 Minaean su, Hebrew
hu‘, hi’, Arabic huwa, hiya, but both retained in Mehri, where he, hi
appears as masculine, se, si as feminine. So in the causative pre-
formative s- in Assyrian and sometimes in Aramaic, with very rare
survivals in Hebrew; h- in Hebrew and in older Aramaic, with a
few survivals in Arabic; Hamza in later Aramaic, in Arabic, and
Abyssinian, but in these two latter with s- retained in the reflexive
st- (Arabic istaqtala , etc.). Here, again, Mehri retains both s- 10
and h-. Minaean shows causative s-, and this becomes h- in
Sabaean. So in Mehri we often find h for Arabic s-, as in Arab
sab', “ seven,” Mehri hob a' ; Arabic sitt, ‘ six/ Mehri hitt, etc.”
i* The change of h to Hamza is here not phonetic, but due to a process of
re-formation (so Dr. Speiser informs me) ; nothing in my argument
depends on this, and I pass it by without discussion.
17 The passage is quoted verbatim ; any errors of fact are therefore
retained.
18 So O’Leary for the correct fiii, li.
18 Mehri has not l, but s, in the causative ; cf. J. Barth, Pronominal-
bildung IT (1931).
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Roland G. Kent
Now if this statement is to be taken at its face value, we can
extract from it the following : that s and h varied with each other
when initial before a vowel; that this variation is limited to the
pronoun and the causative preformative ; and some other matters
with which we are here not concerned. My objection lies against
the points specifically named; for phonetic changes do not (as
O’Leary implies and almost asserts) affect a selected list of words:
unless we admit that phonetic changes are regular and affect all
occurrences of the sound where the conditions of speech are the
same, there is no science of language.
Our author seems to mean that the sound which he is discussing
started as an original s and in some languages developed to h.
Why then did the initial antevocalic s in Hebrew sagad 20 c salute
the s in Hebrew ses * six ’, and in sern ‘ name persist in Hebrew,
which has h- in the pronoun and in most of the causative forms?
The same holds for Arabic, except that the h- of the causative has
been replaced by Hamza; "Abyssinian” is like Arabic, and
Aramaic also, except that there are a few causatives with s-.
Assyrian has a sibilant throughout . 21 No, there is no possibility
of deriving the h- forms from the $- forms ; there is a persistence
of the Semitic sibilants in other typical words. It is necessary to
assume two sources for these words, one a pronoun beginning with
s- and the other a pronoun beginning with h-, which may later
become Hamza. Professor Speiser, in a paper read last year at
the meeting of this Society, identified the causative preformative
with the pronoun ; 22 and an admission of the twofold origin of the
pronoun sets matters in order . 23
I come now to matters of wrong interpretation, where the evi-
20 Sic! This is O’Leary’s example; it is really a word borrowed by
Hebrew from another dialect. Any Semitic scholar can substitute another
example that will illustrate my point.
21 Apart from some very modern dialects, the change of s to h is found
in Semitic only in a few words, which are under special influences and must
be discussed individually.
22 This paper is not yet published, he informs me.
23 There is nothing astonishing in such a twofold origin. For compari-
son, consider the Indo-European demonstrative, which has the stem so- in
nom. sg. masc. *so (Skt. sa. Gk. 6), fem. *sd (Skt. sd, Gk. 4), and the
stem to- in all the other case-forms: nom.-acc. sg. neut. *tod (Skt. tad,
Gk. to), gen. sg. masc. *tosio (Skt. tasya, Gk. roio. roc), etc. Cf. also
English he and she, from different roots.
Linguistic Science and the Orientalist
127
dence lies at hand. On page 89, O’Leary, under the heading
Palatalization, says: “In Arabic dialect 24 palatal k is thus affected
by a neighboring i, e (a) : in 'Iraq and Nejd, as well as amongst
the Bedwin of the Syrian desert and the fellahin of Palestine, k
often becomes c after e, i (a), thus in ‘Iraq 2nd fem. suffix -ic for
-ik (■=- Tei ), plur. -cen.” Any student of linguistic processes
knows that vowels are much more likely to produce changes in
preceding consonants than in those which follow, especially if the
consonant standing between vowels belongs in the syllable which
contains the following vowel. Such is the case here: the original
ending was (as O’Leary himself knows) -ki, in which the final -l 23
palatalized the preceding consonant and changed the preceding
vowel, whereupon it was lost in pronunciation. It has escaped
O’Leary that such a lost sound might have produced its effect
before it was lost — but such is an extremely common process.
Curiously, after this example, O’Leary lists a number of instances
in which a following front vowel has palatalized (often with
assibilation) a preceding consonant; hut as the vowel was retained
in the pronunciation, there was no obstacle to his making a correct
interpretation.
A lack of historical perspective appears also in O’Leary’s treat-
ment of the suffixed pronoun of the first person singular. On page
149 he speaks of this as attached to nouns and prepositions, in the
forms -ya, -iya, -i, and their phonetic developments, “ and so we may
regard -iya as in all probability the original form.” On the next
page he speaks of this pronoun as attached to verbs, “ where it has
the inserted consonant -n-. This is a purely phonetic addition
called by the Arabic grammarians ‘ the supporting n ’ or ‘ the
protecting n ’, and so Brockelmann refers to the n as used to avoid
hiatus (Brockelmann, Sem. Sprach., Leipzig, 1906, p. 100) ; but
Wright (Comp. Gram., p. 96) seems disposed to regard it as in
some way denoting the accusative.” These are most astonishing
statements. Even a “ phonetic addition ” must have some origin,
genetic or analogical — in the latter instance the source of the
analog}' must be sought ; and as for its “ denoting the accusative ”,
there is, I think, no basis for a view that a case-element may here
be attached to the end of the verb or to the beginning of the pro-
24 Properly, in some Arabic dialects.
25 The final vowel in this termination is by origin a long vowel, but is
not so marked by O’Leary.
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Roland G. Kent
noun. The explanation is simple: this n is the same n which
appears in all forms of the first person pronoun in the singular, 26
when it is a separate word : Arab, ‘ana, Heb. ‘ant, Ass. anaku, etc.
Another instance of unclear statement and wrong attitude toward
a phenomenon is seen in the treatment of the demonstrative ha
(page 162), which “occurs as the definite article in Hebrew,
Phoenician, Moabite, and sometimes in Samaritan. In this use it
appears as hd- with closure by doubling the following consonant,
or (in Hebrew) as he-, ha-, before the laryngals; but of these hd-
is obviously the normal form, although this does not preclude its
identification with Arabic hd, the shortening being due to its use
as a prefix. . . . it is . . . simply an instance of the preservation
of a short vowel by the expedient of closing the syllable by
doubling 27 the following consonant.” The true solution is simple,
but escapes him: an original hd (still preserved in Arabic in a
different use, and sometimes in Hebrew) has, as a proclitic, suffered
shortening of the vowel, with a simultaneous lengthening of the
initial consonant of the word to which it was proclitic. O’Leary’s
misunderstanding of this comes out clearly on page 105, where
under “Preservation of original a” in Hebrew he says: “Some-
times a is preserved by doubling the following consonant so as to
produce double closure, . . . thus hd- in hammelek, etc.” This is
based on the assumption that ha was originally ha and not hd;
and strange to say, it immediately follows the formulation that
“ Very often even in nouns the initial syllable shows a changed to
l in double closure, thus yak Ml > yiktol .” In other words, to pre-
serve the short a in ha, the following consonant is doubled, which
produces the very condition in which d becomes i — but it here
prevents the very same change!
The same attitude is taken toward the interrogative md (page
173), which appears in Hebrew as md or md, “the short retained
by closure of the syllable the original length of the vowel is seen
abundantly in the other Semitic languages. The proper formula
of this phonetic change is that when a monosyllable ending in a
long vowel is united closely with the following word, the long vowel
28 A fact recognized by J. Barth. Pronominalbildung 36 (1913) ; and by
H. Bauer and P. Leander, Historische Grammatilc der Hebraischen Soroche
260 ( 1922 ).
*' Properly, by lengthening the following consonant, so that part of the
consonant belonged to the preceding syllable.
Linguistic Science and the Orientalist
129
is shortened before any one of certain consonants, that consonant
being simultaneously lengthened to preserve the syllabic quantity.
I wish to quote one more passage from O’Leary’s grammar, in
which he has failed to make the obvious explanation. On page 195,
in discussing the dual, he says: “Hebrew has [as ending of the
dual] -ay, which appears in the construct, and so yaday ‘ two
hands ’ (Ezek. xiii, 18), rarely -e as in sne ‘ two ’ in the combina-
tion sue 'osar ‘ twelve ’. With mimation yadayim ‘ two days etc.”
Now to call this addition of m mimation is to imply that this m
is identical with the m which Proto-Semitic used in the singular
to mark a noun as indeterminate (i. e., the m had the value of an
indefinite article) ; it is far from certain that the -m of the plural
is of the same origin, and it certainly does not have the same
semantic function. In reality, yadayim is the dual yaday -j- m
taken from the plural; 28 any writer of a comparative grammar
should be able to see this fact and to state it unequivocally.
I would not have you think that my critique is directed against
O’Leary’ s work alone, nor even specifically ; his is but a type, and
its failings are symptomatic, although, as a comparative grammar,
it furnishes more abundant material for my scrutiny than do most
other volumes. I turn now to one passage taken from C. F.
Burney’s edition of The Book of Judges , 29 which illustrates a dif-
ferent violation of linguistic method: the assumption that if a
change of a sound to another sound has occurred in some other lan-
guage, or is a variation seen in the comparison of two other
languages, this same change or variation may be operated with in
connection with the problem in hand. On page 430, Burney is
speaking of J oshua 15 : 9, where he translates a phrase as “ the
spring of the waters of Nephtoah”, 30 which he says is “probably
Lifta”, in justification of which he sets a long footnote: “The
interchange between n and l. as seen in Nephtoah, Lifta, may be
illustrated by Hebrew niska and liska ‘chamber,’ Heb. nahas (root
of nahas ‘serpent’) and lahas ‘to hiss,’ Bab. nesu and Heb. Idyls
‘ lion,’ New Heb. nakat and Bib. Heb. Idkat, Aram. n e kat and
38 Hebrew alone is in question here.
38 Rev. C. F. Burney, The Book of Judges, edited with introduction and
notes; 2nd ed., London, Rivingtons, 1920.
30 The words me nephtoah more probably are the name of the Egyptian
Pharaoh Mineptah or Merneptah; an interpretation first set forth by von
Calice, OLZ 6.224 (1903).
130 Roland G. Kent
l e kat, ‘to pick up/ Heb nathan and Aram. n e than and n'-thal
‘to give/ Heb. ’almana and Aram. 1 arm e la ‘widow/ etc. Tbe
interchange is not confined to Semitic : thus tbe English Lincoln
appears in Northern French as Nicole ; level is from Old French
livel, which has become niveau in modern French; lilac comes
ultimately from the Persian Male, a variation of nilak ‘blue 5 ; etc.”
The non-Semitic pairs of words are quite irrelevant, but all show
one feature, the presence of two l’s at some period of their history :
thus niveau for livel shows a dissimilation of the Vs, Utah for nilak
shows an assimilation to the second l, Nicole for Lincoln shows a
dissimilative loss of one n and of one l and a metathesis of the
remaining l and n, so as to produce a familiar name. 31 Of the
Semitic examples — if for purposes of argument we grant the cor-
rectness of Burney’s equations — some seem to show the same
processes as the Indo-European words; others are onomatopoetic ;
still others may be products of contamination of two roots having
more or less the same meaning; but there is nothing which can
justify the assumption of the etymological equivalence of n and l
in Semitic words, 32 any more that to assume from some scattered
Indo-European words that the nude is ipso facto, etymologically,
the lewd. No ; Burney here transgresses against linguistic science.
I turn now to a third volume. The Book of Joh, a revised text
and version, by C. J. Ball ; 33 as it happens, it is equipped with a
preface by Mr. Burney, who in eulogistic terms commends Mr.
31 1 could add other examples from the Indo-European languages, of this
same scattered character, but all resting on assimilation or dissimilation.
33 Some of the (non-Indo-European) languages which were in contact
with the Semitic languages geographically did have this change of n to l,
or of ! to n; but no such change is found in the Semitic languages them-
selves (on the authority of Prof. Speiser). Such interchange might
sporadically result in any Semitic language as the product of the linguistic
substratum or through borrowing. S. L. Skoss, in the Jewish Quart. Rev.
23. 1-43 (1932), has an article on “Permutation in Hebrew”, in which he
edits and translates a chapter from the dictionary of David ben Abraham
al-Fasi on this subject: in which 25 different pairs of consonants (among
them, n and l) are listed as varying with each other. The examples are
sporadic, and must be studied and judged individually; to regard them as
establishing normal phonetic developments is to turn the linguistic science
of this field into chaos.
33 C. J. Ball. The Book of Job, a revised text and version; Oxford, The
Clarendon Press, 1922. Quotations are verbatim, except for omissions that
do not change the meaning.
Linguistic Science and the Orientalist
131
Ball’s linguistic discoveries, and says that for himself “ one of the
most interesting and valuable features of the book is the elucidation
of the original biliteral forms of Semitic roots by reference to
Sumerian.” I am not qualified to judge the validity of such a
theory : certainly Sumerian words could have been, and were, taken
over by the Semites when they overspread the territory formerly
occupied by the speakers of Sumerian; but that Sumerian influ-
ence was so strong that it formed the basis for a new make-up of
the language of the Semitic successors, not only in that region, but
also among all speakers of Semitic dialects, wherever located, is
rather hard on the credulity of the Indo-Europeanist without an
intimate knowledge of Semitic dialects. But to return rather to
matters of method, I illustrate this by the following passage (page
229, note to Job 14:2): “ The Prim, root of this mil is prob. the
same as that of ’ml, ’mil, droop, languish, become weak and power-
less. And since MAL== BAL, PAL, nbl, npl, may also be regarded
as cogn. Cf. Sum. MAL in KA-SU-MAL = KA-SU-GAL, labdnu
appi, ‘ to throw down the face ’, i. e. prostrate oneself, face down-
wards in prayer; KI-AN'-BAL (place -f- high -j- low), sapiltum u
elitum, ‘upper and lower side’; IM-BAL, a wind that downs
things, a hurricane ( nabbaltu ) ; nabalu, written also napalu, to
‘ down ’, throio down , destroy, cities ; nabultum, a prostrate body,
a corpse, Heb. n e bhelah; perhaps nabalu, land, as opp. to tdmtu,
the sea, str. the low, the bottom, ground, fundus > the dry, which
would connect it with nablu ■== Sum. BIL, BAL, fire, a different
word. The Assyr. labdnu, to ‘ down ’, may be a phonetic variant
of nabalu, throw down. (So mil to say, speak, is akin to Sum.
BAL, to speak, say, tamu, dabdbu.)” Out of all this, the central
point seems to be that as the Sumerian ideograms MAL, BAL,
PAL are interchangeable in meaning, so the Hebrew mil is iden-
tical with nbl and npl, or all three go back to the same biliteral
root which is seen in Sumerian in three ideographic forms. But
as an ideogram does not represent the pronunciation of the spoken
word, there is no basis for regarding m, b, p as interchangeable
sounds in this root : they are at best only interchangeable writings
in Sumerian. With this the entire basis for his disquisition is
swept away.
Again, page 2T3, in a note on Job 19: 18, Ball seeks to establish
a root han ‘smell, stink’ (with the validity of his argument for
this, based on Semitic words, I am not concerned), and adds the
2
132
Roland G. Kent
following: "This HAN (KHAN) is probably a weakened form
of the primitive Asiatic root KAN (GAN), which we seem to see
in the Sumerian GIN, sweet, pleasant (tabu; cf. qane(h) hattob
Je 6 20 ), KU(N), sweet, and in the Chinese kan, kam, kein, ko,
sweet, which Edkins regarded as the source of hong, Jap. kyo, kom,
incense, sweet-smelling (Rad. 186).” 34 We must ask what is a
“primitive Asiatic root”? Is there a proto- Asiatic language?
Such an inference is not wont to be drawn by scientific linguists.
Perhaps he means that from a very early language of Asia this root
or rather a word based on this root was borrowed by other languages
and was thus spread over much of Asia; but his terminology does
not indicate this. And it is startling to see that he thinks that one
and the same root might yield derivatives in Sumerian, Chinese,
and Japanese, as well as in the Semitic languages, though no two
of these are genetically related. 35
In equating words of languages unrelated by origin Ball is going
back to the methods of those who derived all languages from
Hebrew, 38 regardless of all internal and historical evidence. This
is not with him an exceptional proceeding: cf. page 349, in the
second paragraph of his note to Job 30:9: “ N e gina(k) music,
playing on stringed instruments. La 5 14 , and the verb ngn appear
to be derived from the root NAG, to strike; cf. Sum. BA-LAG,
harp, lyre, music , SIR BALAGA, zamdr balaggi, ‘harp-music’,
‘harp-playing’, BA-LAG ZURA-TA, ina balaggi u ikribi, ‘with
music and prayer’; and the Ch. lok, ngok, Annam. lak, niak,
4 j°y/ ‘ music Wherein he adds Anamese 37 to his list of equated
languages, which may go with Chinese, but has nothing to do with
Semitics. He has also assumed the n : l variation, which has
been discussed above; of which I repeat that in each Semitic
example it must be explained, however it is to be dealt with in
Chinese and in Anamese.
I fear to bore you, but I would introduce one more example
before I come to my summation of the matter. On page 424, in a
34 Again a mere verbatim quotation, except that I have transliterated the
Hebrew words; the validity of his etymological combinations may be left
in abeyance.
15 It is only by borrowing that words or derivatives of the same roots
could be common to genetically unrelated languages.
** Following the narrative in Genesis 11. 1-9.
37 A spelling preferable to that with two n’s.
Linguistic Science and the Orientalist
133
note to Job 38:32, we read the following statement by Ball:
“ If, as Burney thinks, EB s. v. Stars, 'ayis is the Pleiads and
kima ( h) Canis Major, the Great Dog which lies at the feet of
Orion the Hunter southward, 38 perhaps kima(h) ^=kind(h), with
interchange of n, m, such as we find elsewhere and Mna(h) may
be compared with the Aryan base KWAY, Gk. kw-, Lat. can-,
Chinese khien, F. k'eing, houud, Irish and Gaelic cu , dog, Welsh ci,
Chinese kou, J. ku, dog.” Here is even worse confusion of lan-
guages: Indo-European (the correct term rather than Aryan), 30
Semitic, Chinese, Japanese. But he seems to think that where n
stands, it may equally well be m. It is true that n and m inter-
change before certain consonants of similar position of articulation
(n standing before t and d, m before p and 5, etc.), but this is
emphatically not true when the nasal sound stands before a vowel.
All Ball’s argument in this passage, so far as it is linguistic, is
nonsense.
I would Temind you that my aim is not a critique of the scholars
whose works I have introduced into the argument. They appear
in the picture simply because their work is symptomatic of what
is done even now by Semitic scholars, and I can reveal the defects
of Semitic scholarship through them, without giving direct offense
to friends whom I esteem highly. Yet if the shoe fits, they also
must put it on. I cannot have them feel that they are exempt from
criticism because they are not named : but at the same time I wish
to enter here the explanation of the curious situation which exists
in Semitic scholarship, in its linguistic aspect.
From before the beginning of the Christian era the books com-
posed in Hebrew and Aramaic, which are collectively known as the
Old Testament, have been the subject of an intense interest, as is
natural and proper, to those who professed the Jewish religion.
Targum, Halakhah, Mishna, Midrash, Talmud, Masoretic text, and
commentaries galore, enter upon the scene ; and little of this could
be done without etymological interpretation of the more difficult
words and passages. The doctrine of the triliteral 40 roots was
38 This identification with the Dog-Star is, Prof. Speiser tells me, a pure
assumption unsupported by evidence.
34 The term Aryan is now properly used only in the meaning of Indo-
Iranian.
40 ‘ Triliteral ’ is an unfortunate term, since it implies that the roots are
made up of letters rather than of sounds ; ‘ triconsonantal ’ would be
t
134
Roland G. Kent
established by Judah Ibn-Hayyuj of Cordova in the early part of
the eleventh century of the Christian era; his discovery was a
notable achievement. But in all this time the Old Testament books
were of high importance also to Christians, who, though having
split off from Judaism, still claimed to retain a share in their his-
torical and spiritual message. From the pre-Christian Greek
translation known as the Septuagint, and from later Greek versions,
as well as by comparison with the original Hebrew text, Latin
versions were made for the use of the Christians. That of St.
Jerome, toward the end of the fourth century, gradually gained
general acceptance : it was presently known as the Vulgate. More
and more the Christian scholars found it necessary to have a first-
hand knowledge of the original Hebrew text; and despite the
reluctance of orthodox Jewish scholars to impart such learning to
their religious opponents, there were some who were broad-minded
enough to have no such scruples, and there were also those Jews
who were converted to Christianity, and brought their knowledge
of the Hebrew language with them into the service of their new
faith. The situation has been thus summed up : 41 “ At first, and
indeed down to the middle of the seventeenth century, Jewish tra-
ditions and methods in the study of Hebrew dominated Christian
scholars ; but in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the study
of other Semitic languages opened up that comparative linguistic
study which was systematized and brought nearer to perfection in
the nineteenth century by scholars such as Gesenius,” and others,
whose names need not be quoted.
Meantime another field of linguistic study had been lying dor-
mant. The grammatical studies of the Greeks and the Eomans had
been available to the Christian Church from its earliest days, but
they were rather devoted to the interpretation of difficult words and
passages in pre-Christian authors; and except for the practical
purpose of learning Latin as a spoken language in the days when
vernacular languages had replaced it with the peoples of western
Europe, Latin grammar was in a static condition. Interest in lan-
guage as such received its first effective stimulus from Sir William
Jones, who on returning from India made known in 1796, to
preferable. But of course the term is too firmly established by centuries
of use, for any change to be thinkable.
41 George Buchanan Gray, in the Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th ed.,
3. 858-9, s. v. Bible.
Linguistic Science and the Orientalist
135
Occidental scholarship, the high importance of Sanskrit. And
though the exact status of Sanskrit was for a time somewhat
misunderstood, acquaintance with it led to Friedrich von Schlegel’s
recognition in 1808 of the fact that certain languages were genetic-
ally related, which we now term the Indo-European family or
group. 42 His studies were speedily followed by the works of Franz
Bopp, Rasmus Rask, and Jacob Grimm, and before 1825 it was
recognized that to the Indo-European family there belonged
Sanskrit, Avestan, Armenian, Greek, Latin, Lithuanian, Old
Church Slavonic, Gothic, and German, as well as other languages
obviously akin closely to these. Grimm’s Law of the Germanic
Sound-shift, the Aryan law of palatalization, Verner’s Law (as a
regularly formulated exception to Grimm’s Law), Brugmann’s
demonstration of the presence of vowel nasals in the parent Indo-
European language — all these were steps in the direction of a sci-
ence of language. The final step was taken in 1876, when A.
Leskien propounded the view that sound-changes are regular and
universal : that is, that a given sound in the earlier parent language
will develop to the same sound in any specified later language,
without exception. 43 The formulation, known as the Invariability
of Phonetic Law, needed to be amplified by the proviso under the
same conditions: the sound may develop differently if the condi-
tions in which it stands are different in different words. To this
must be added also the possibility, frequently operative, that ana-
logical influences may have their effect and produce other changes. 44
Into such details I cannot now go; but from the day when the
regularity of linguistic processes was recognized linguistics entered
into the dignity of a science.
42 Formerly called Aryan (cf. note 39); and in German regularly
denominated indogermanisch.
43 Cf. Otto Jespersen, Language, its Xature. Development, and Origin,
32-96 (NewYork; Henry Holt and Co., 1922); Holger Pedersen, Linguistic
Science in the X inetcenth Century, translated by J. W. Spargo, 248-310
(Cambridge; Harvard University Press, 1931); Leonard Bloomfield,
Language 346-68 (Xew York; Henry Holt and Co., 1933). I refrain from
commenting here on the recording of hitherto unwritten languages (cf.
note 7), and on the comparatively new subject of linguistic geography,
since neither would contribute directly to the purpose of this address.
44 Mixture of dialects through the borrowing of forms of one dialect by
the speakers of another dialect is also an important factor, which might
perhaps better be made a separate item in our list.
136
Roland G. Kent
Indo-Europeanists busied themselves with historical studies in
all known Indo-European languages; and comparative grammars
of the whole field, and of special branches of the family, as well as
historical grammars of the separate languages, are available for
virtually all the parts of the field.
During these last sixty years, also, linguistic scholars have
entered upon the study of other language groups. The languages
of the American Indians, themselves forming many mutually unre-
lated families; the Bantu languages of Africa; the Indonesian
languages of the Pacific and the Indian Oceans, have all been taken
up by scholars trained in the methods of Indo-European linguis tics,
as well as other scattered languages.
Here we come upon a remarkable situation, so far as S emi tic
studies are concerned. Indo-European methods have made less
impression upon scholars in Semitic languages — apart from some
notable exceptions 45 — than upon those in the other less-known
fields which I have named. Why so ? The explanation is not far
to seek. Semitic scholarship is largely in the hands of those who
came into it by way of theological and religious interests, often
with a missionary interlude which turned their attention upon the
practical speaking of languages. When these theologians I use
the term without disparagement, to include those whose first inter-
est in languages has started from theological studies— when these
theologians, I say, turned to pure scholarship, they were mature
scholars, though trained for another career and not for linguistics.
Yet when they turned to scholarly work in Semitic languages, they
were obliged to perform the tasks of the scholar in linguistics: and
for this they were not prepared. It is not human nature for a person
of mature years to go to school again, to learn a new technique
which is to apply to a subject matter already familiar to him. Such,
of course, is the reason for the present situation in Semitic linguistic
scholarship, and notably in this country.
But this natural human impulse does not excuse Semitic scholars.
Their craft obliges them to perform tasks of linguistic science.
They are under obligations therefore to learn the technique of that
science. If they do not do so, they cannot claim validity for their
Brockelmann was a disciple of Brugmann, the eminent Indo-Europeanist-
Bergstrasser at one time lectured on general phonetics at Bonn. They are
the most distinguished exponents of scientific Semitic grammar.
Linguistic Science and the Orientalist
137
conclusions, except such as was reached in the hit-or-miss method
prevailing in Indo-European studies before the discovery of the
regularity of phonetic law. The easy problems have ceased long
ago to be problems ; advances can now be made only by a scientific
procedure. For the sake of accuracy and correctness in his own
work, the Semitic scholar must learn from the Indo-Europeanist
the method which the Indo-Europeanist has worked out, with
stumbling and straying, but at last with validity, which he alone
has worked out, which he alone is able to pass on to workers in
other linguistic fields.
I have no desire to scold nor to rebuke, nor to assume a “ holier-
than-thou ” attitude. I have attempted merely to present a picture
of the present situation which holds with most Semitic studies
which in part or in whole lie within the linguistic field, notably
among scholars of English speech, less among those of German and
French speech. My concern is perhaps even more limited than it
seems to be: it is with the Semitists who are my fellow -members
in the American Oriental Society, representing the best that there
is in this field in my own country. To them I appeal that they
should acquaint themselves with the essentials of linguistic method,
that the fruits of their research may be founded not upon the
shifting sands of superficial resemblance and sporadic analogies,
but upon the firm rock of scientific method.
POLITICAL THEOLOGY IH EARLY ISLAM
HASAN AL-BA§RI’S TREATISE ON QADAR
Julian Obermann
Yale University
1. General Significance. To the student of Islam, the name
and fame of Hasan al-Basrl have always conveyed reminiscences of
a legendary figure rather than a historical personality. He is of
that early and stormy era of Islam in the annals of which truth is
forever fused with fiction, and the facts of his life, just as the
features of his individuality, can only be found in a sea of fancy
and anecdote supplied by an adoring posterity.
Born in the year 21 a. h., his very childhood is surrounded by
the mist of fable. Significant, if only as a symptom, is the en-
deavor of tradition to bring him into the sacred circle of Muhammed
himself. He is said to have been suckled by the wife of the Prophet
TJmm Salama; or to have imbibed heavenly wisdom by having
once drunk from a pitcher that had been used by Muhammed;
upon hearing him speak, 'A’isha exclaims that he talks with the
tongue of prophets. Over against fabulous elements of this kind,
stands the plain fact of his vast and lasting influence in nearly all
branches of Muslim lore and all denominations of Islam — a fact
which has often tempted modern scholars to appraise his actual
contribution from such reliable, if secondary, sources as were at
their disposal. 1
Lnder these circumstances, a document bearing the name of
Hasan al-Basrl would command our attention, whatever its con-
tents. As it is, the Arabic text found in a Constantinople codex
and published in a recent issue of Der Islam, 2 * * * by Hellmut Ritter,
1 See Louis llassignon, Essai sur les origines du lexique technique de la
Mystique Musulmane, pp. 152-179; and Recueil de textes inedits concern-
ant I'histoire de la Mystique en pays d’Islam, pp. 1-5; H. H. Schaeder,
“ Hasan al-Basrl/’ Her Islam 14, p. 42ff.; Hellmut Ritter, Studien zur
Geschichte der islamischen Frommigkeit (see the following n.) ; ef. also
G. Bergstrasser, “Die Koranlesung des Hasan von Basra,” Islamica 2
p. 11 ff.
2 VoL 21 • PP- 6 "- 82 - ( In t,le present article, this text will be referred to
by the pages and lines of Ritter's edition, without further specification )
Preceding the text-edition. R. offers an important, if not entirelv lucid
contribution to the problem of Hasan on pp. 1-66; for the data of his
manuscript material, cf. especially p. 62 (and this article n. 7 and 10)
138
Political Theology in Early Islam
139
contains a treatise of unusual interest. The problem of qadar, it
has often been observed, occupies the center of philosophical and
theological speculation in Islam, from its earliest beginnings
through all stages of its historic development. Owing, however,
to the complete absence of contemporary records, our knowledge of
the speculative movements in early Islam, and therefore also of the
genetic history of qadar, has been to date both meager in extent and
unreliable in character.
The early school of Arab thought known as that of the Mu'tazila,
and founded by Hasan’s pupil Wasil Ibn ‘Ata’, has often enough
been the subject of scholarly presentations, to be sure. Yet these
presentations are not based on the works of the great pioneers of
the Mu'tazilite school, none of which have come down to us, but
depend either on its younger representatives 3 or, and this is the
rule, on doxographies written by Sunnite authors and, therefore,
not free from bias of one kind or another. Yor is the Mu'tazila
the “ first ” school of speculative thinking in Islam. It was pre-
ceded by the movement of the so-called Qadarites, whose relation-
ship to the Mu'tazila must be said, from all appearances, to have
been paternal both in time and ideology. If, therefore, the treatise
is authentic, as we hope to demonstrate, it represents not merely a
work from the hand of Hasan, but the only product of early Muslim
theology that has come down to us; a treatise on qadar contempo-
rary to the Qadarite movement in its pre-Mu'tazilite period.
2. The Lettek of 'Abdalmalik. Our document is in the form
of a risale, that is, a message, a brief, an epistle, the seeming
casualness of which is perhaps one reason why the work is not
found mentioned by any of the earlier Arabic authors dealing with
Hasan . 4 Another, more probable, reason would be deliberate
“The pertinent material ottered by Jahiz, Zamahshari, Murtada, baa of
late been considerably increased by the publication of the Kitab al-Intisar,
of al-Hayyat (edited by H. S. Nyberg, Cairo 1925), and the i laqalat of
al-'Ash’ari (edited by Hellmut Ritter, Istanbul 1929-30), whose extra-
ordinarily rich material on the Mu'tazila (still to be critically appraised)
must have been gathered, if not actually compiled, before the author’s
break with al-Jubba’I; (see R. Strothmann, Der Islam 16, p. 280 ff., and
19, p. 220).
* Ibn Sa'd ( t 230 ) , Tabaqat (ed. Sachau -Meissner) VII, 1. pp. 114-129;
Tabari (t310), Ta’rih (ed. M. J. de Goeje) III, 4, pp. 2488-2493; Ibn
Qutaiba (f276), Ma'arif (ed. Wiistenfeld), p. 225 f. ; see, however, the
following note.
140
Julian Obermann
“ conspiracy of silence ”. Official orthodoxy, as crystallized in the
centuries after Hasan, could not well afford to have this pillar of
the Muslim church associated with ideas that had come to be labeled
as heterodox . 5 As far as can be seen, the first to face the issue of
the risale is Shahrastanl . 6 While he is too good a Sunnite to
refrain from expressing some misgivings as to its authorship, there
is apparently no question in his mind as to its genuineness. He
merely suggests that it was written, at the request of ‘Abdalmalik
b. Merwan, by Hasan’s pupil Wasil Ibn 'Ata\ Our document is
actually addressed to the famous Omayyad Calif, the author intro-
ducing nearly each paragraph with the words yd ‘amir al-mu’mimn.
And it contains, fortunately, not only Hasan’s treatise in extenso,
but also the letter of ‘Abdalmalik inviting him to write the treatise.
This letter would deserve a critical study on its own account.
It begins with the words From ‘Aid al-Malik b. Marwdn, Com-
mander of the Believers, to al-Hasan b. ‘All ’l-Hasan al-Basri.
Peace be upon thee. In the course of the letter, however, the writer,
with but few exceptions, appears to refer to the Calif in terms of
the third person singular . 7 This would seem to fit well with a
6 This “ conspiracy,” however, cannot be said to have been very successful;
apparently the tradition associating H. with the qadar-problem and the
Qadarivya was too persistent to be passed over in silence altogether (which
fact is no small support of the authenticity of our document ) . One cannot
help wondering whether such statements as wa-kana takallama ft shay’ in
min al-qadari (Ibn Qutaiba) or kana yaqulu bi-qauli ’l-qadariyyati (Tabari
2489, 17) do not hint at the risale before us. Significant, too, is the report
of an admirer who, after had died, inquires about his writings and is
told that, while on his sick-bed, H. had ordered all his works burnt! (Ibn
Sa'd 127. 10 ff. and, with some variations, Tabari 2492, Iff.). Cf. below
n. 45 and 57.
' K. al-milal ica-'n-nihal (ed. W. Cureton), p. 32 (mark the rather mild
expression: ica-la'allaha li-Wdsil b. ’Ata). That in Sh.’s time (t 548)
copies of our document were rare (and unavailable to the public?) may
perhaps be inferred from the words ica-ra’aytu risalatan.
7 Only two instances of the 1st person occur both in (a) the MS under-
lying Ritter's edition (Kopriilu 1589) and (b) the abridgment used in his
critical apparatus (Aya Sofya 3998) ; viz. in the introductory formula
( fa-’inni ’uhammidu ’ilayka ’Uaha) . and in an apparently parenthetic clause
at the end of the letter (fa-’innd lam nasma' fi hadd ’l-kaldmi mujadilan) .
In both instances the usage of 1st p. would be most natural if Hasan’s
correspondent was al-Hajjaj acting upon orders from the Calif. The other
occurrences of the 1st p. are not borne out by both texts and present no
doubt “corrections” of later copyists; (a) balagani = (b) balaga 'amira
Political Theology in Early Islam
141
statement of the Mu'tazilite author Ibn al-Muxtada, suggesting®
that the letter was written not by the Calif himself but by his
brilliant general and viceroy al-Hajjaj, governor of ‘Iraq, at the
order of the Calif — a suggestion quite plausible in itself. Al-
Hajjaj is known to have maintained, during his residence in Basra,
friendly relations with Hasan until 86, in which year the inter-
course of the two men came to a tragic end. 3 Indeed, there seems
to be ample evidence for al-Hajjaj having been the intermediary
not only in conveying to Hasan the Calif’s request but also in pre-
senting to the Calif Hasan’s reply. Accordingly, our treatise ap-
pears to have existed from the beginning in two recensions :
(a) the authentic form as it left the hand of the author, addressed
to the Calif, but actually submitted to al-Hajjaj; and (b) a sum-
mary of it forwarded to the court in Damascus by al-Hajjaj
together — and this should be well noticed — with a vigorous indorse-
ment by himself. 10
’l-mu’minina; and (a) wa-ld ya'lamu 'a miru ’l-mu’minina 'anna 'aha dan
’adrakahu min as-sahabati = (b) wa-ld na'lamn 'ahadan takallama bihi
mimman ’adraknd min as-sahabati. See below n. 10.
8 Kitdb al-munya (viz. Bab dikr al-mu'tazila, ed. T. W. Arnold), p. 12:
wa-risalatuhu 'ild 'Abd-al-maliki mashhuratun wa-dblika ’inna ’l-Hajjbja
kataba ’ild ’l-Hasani balagand 'ankafi ’l-qadar etc. (cf. the preceding note) .
"See, e. g., Mas'udi, Les prairies d’or 5, p. 314; the very manner in which
the break between the two men is reported (cf. Tabari 2490, 13; Kitdb
al-'agbni, Buluq 1285, 4, p. 74) points to their one time intimacy; see espe-
cially Ibn Qallikan (de Slane), 1, p. 362, and comp. Schaeder, p. 55 f. ; and
Ritter, p. 53 ff. Since 86 is also the year of 'Abdalmalik’s death, this year
(705 a. d. ) is, at any rate, terminus ad quern for the date of our document.
10 A comparison of the two MSS used by Ritter ( see n. 7 ) makes it quite
clear that they are dependent upon texts that had formed some such rela-
tionship as assumed above, Kopriilii 1589 descending from (a), and Aya
Sofya 3998 from (b). 1. In the text depending on (a) we have both the
original beginning (salam ’ alayka yd 'amira ’ l-mu'minin ) and ending
(wa-hadd jawabu md sa'altani ’anhu) ; here the author speaks directly to
the Calif throughout, using the 1st p., of course, whenever the occasion offers
itself; 68, 10: ’ahdatna; 72, 5: kalaml wa-kitabl; 82, 20: bayyantuhu
wa-audahtuhu. 2. In the text depending on (b), on the other hand, only
about one fourth of the material of the risale is contained; namely, six
quotations of varying length, and differing in order from that of the risale.
These quotations are appended (p. 80, n. a) by a plea to the Calif on
IJasan’s behalf, paying high tribute both to the author (lam yabqa . . .
ahad-un huica 'a'lamu. bi-’lldhi . . . min al-Hasan etc.) and his treatise
( fafi kitabi ’l-Hasan ba'da kitabi ’llahi ’sh-shifau), and urging the Calif
to hold him in high honor. The person writing the plea can be none other
142
Julian Obermann
Be that as it may, in the letter before us Hasan is asked by
'Abdalmalik, whether directly or through the mediation of al-
Hajjaj, to write his opinion ( qaul ) on qadar in clear terms, and
to send the brief to the Calif. A rumor had reached the Com-
mander of the Believers that he, Hasan, was holding views on
(fi wasf) qadar the like of which none of the Companions of the
Prophet was ever known to have held. The Calif had been well
aware of Hasan’s great piety and learning, and therefore disbe-
lieved (’ ankara ) that rumor. How he wanted Hasan himself to
enlighten him: had Hasan derived his unprecedented qadar theory
from a duly transmitted utterance of the Prophet, or perhaps from
logical reasoning , 11 or else from exegesis of the Qoran?
Seen by itself, without the help of Hasan’s reply, the Calif’s
request would confront us with many a difficulty. The term qadar,
it will be remembered, is used by Muhammed in passages of de-
cisive importance for the theodicy of the Qoran. Yet, had it been
for ’Abdalmaiik’s letter alone, we should have been at a loss to say
just what he meant by that term, or what views of qadar he ex-
pected Hasan to hold, and in which way Hasan seemed to differ
from such views. Xor would it have been of much use to consult
in the matter Qoran commentaries or Arabic dictionaries, whether
Oriental or Western. For here we should find that, in the course
of its long and complicated semantic history , 12 qadar may assume
basic aspects not only very dissimilar but even mutually exclusive.
Only this much, then, becomes clear from the Calif’s letter : that
at the court in Damascus a certain theory of qadar was held to be
than al-Hajjfij. not a konst ruiender Anschreiber. 3. In the course of his plea,
the writer remarks that a copy of Hasan's treatise — that is, a copy of (a) I
— had been sent [by him] to the Calif before (ica-qad bu'ita [Ritter justly:
ba'attu] 'ilayka yd ’amlra ’l-mu'minina nushatu [or else: nushata] kitubi
’l-Hasan etc.) ; obviously, then, what he offered at present was his own
summary or abstract of the treatise, that is, a copy of (b). [Having failed
to recognize the historical nature of the relationship between the two docu-
ments, Ritter takes (b) to be “ ein ad usum delphini gemachter Auszug ”
of (a) !]
11 'am 'an ra'yin ra’aytahu. It is interesting to find, in a document as
old as ours would be. ra y contrasted, on the one hand, with riwaya and,
on the other, with ’amr yu'rafu tasdiquhu fi ’ l-qur’an ; see Goldziher, Die
Zahiriten, p. 5 ff.
12 See the present writer's article “ Das Problem der Kausalitat bei den
Arabern," WZK3I 30, p. 37 ff. (Das Qadarproblem, p. 43 ff. ).
Political Theology in Early Islam
143
alone becoming of a man of piety and learning ; and that not even
a Hasan might deviate from that theory with impunity.
3. The Qadar or Allah. What, then, is the precise sense of
qadar at the particular date and sphere of our document? Hasan
does not appear to offer a verbal definition of the basic idea. What
qadar meant in the consensus of his time and environment, he
naturally takes for granted no less than 'Abdalmalik. It is, there-
fore, only by inference that we may circumscribe the general,
popular concept of qadar, as presupposed both in the Calif’s quest
and in Hasan’s response. But the impression thus gained is
incalculably more vivid than could have been obtained from a verbal
definition, however alert and accurate.
Virtually, the Calif had challenged the Basraite not so much to
explain as rather to defend his "novel” theory on qadar. And,
as would seem inevitable in disputes of this kind, the defensive
soon turns into an offensive. This lends Hasan’s tone a peculiar
blend of zest and irritation that may well be detrimental to the
proper philosophical tone of his treatise, hut adds vastly to its value
as a historical and personal document. To meet effectively the
subtle reproof of the Calif, Hasan sees himself obliged to discuss
the idea of qadar in a variety of modes, now quoting the word from
the Qoran, now expounding on it in his own name, now again in
the name of certain contemporaries whose views differed from his
own and with whom, as will be seen, he is vigorously concerned
throughout the discussion.
But the basic idea of qadar as a technical term remains the same.
It expresses, generally speaking, the share of God in the destiny of
man ; the share, that is, affected by God’s will, His power, His acts,
His knowledge. His grace, His displeasure, as the case may be.
In so far as man perceives his life and fate, whether in totality or
in any given particular, as controlled by God, as depending on God,
this control is qadar, this dependency is on qadar. As an attribute
it is applicable only to God . 13 Used in its nominal form, qadar
simply means “ the qadar of Allah ”. 14 In its verbal form, qadara
13 In a non-technical sense, derivatives of Vqdr (but never the form
qadar) are used both of God and men: qudra, “power,” “capacity,” (of
God: 76, 6; of men: 70, 10; 73. 12: 77, 10) ; qadir, “able,” “capable”
(of God: 76, 7; of men: 77, 12) : see 75, 6; 76, 13 ff-
11 Cf. 75, 7; 76, 1.
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Julian Obermann
denotes an action of controlling, of affecting, of providing, with
God always as the subject, and with Man, for the most part, as the
object . 15
To Hasan as well as to those of his contemporaries whom he so
forcefully repudiates, qadar denotes, specifically, the principle of
pre-determination and pre-destination in Allah’s administration of
the affairs of man ; 16 the difference involves only the practical
appliance of the principle. Hasan’s all important aim is to demon-
strate that, so far as man’s conduct is concerned, this principle
must not be thought to extend beyond the metaphysical realm of
that administration . 17 The absolute reality of qadar is to him no
less essential than to his opponents, but from the beginning to the
end of his treatise he emphatically and ardently denies the incom-
patibility of the qadar of Allah with the moral and religious free-
dom of man. Owing to the polemic-apologetic nature of his risale
and to the make-up of his own personality, his “ demonstration ”
appears to he lacking in analytical exactitude and objectivity. It is
with the vehement eloquence of an outraged preacher, rather than
the detachment and finesse of a dialectitian, that he proceeds to
expose the fallacy of those who take the qadar of Allah to mean
ethical determinism, and believe it to hamper, to interfere with,
the religious self-destination of the individual. The risale is, in
* In the text before us, the idea of qadar is often expressed by qada’,
the two terms being used interchangeably. Occasionally they are combined
into a kind of hendiaduoin: min qada’i ’llahi rca-qadarihi (69, 9, and
passim). In verbal sentences they are governed by the same syntax; comp,
mo qadartu 'alaykum (70, 1) with ma qadaytu 'alaykum (82, 9), and
similarly throughout the text. Whatever different aspects of the qadar-
idea might have been originally expressed by the two terms (cf. WZKM 30,
p. 51 ff.), to the author of our risale they are obviously exact synonyms.
The idea that mans destiny, whether merely physical or both physical
and moral, had been determined before it began to unroll its earthly course
—an idea attested to already in the Qoran (Sura 57: 22: fi kitabin min
qabli on nabra'aha)— is variously evidenced in our text. Once the author,
speaking from the point of view of his opponents, appears mindful to bring
out that idea with special care (74. 1: xea-yamna'una ’an natuba ’ au qad
mana ana dalika ) ; cf. also 74, 21; ff butuni ’ummahatihim. [See Buharl
(ed. Krehl) 4, p. 251 ( fa-yuktabu kadalika fi batni ’ ummihi ) and Ibn
Shahin, Faraj (ed. J. Obermann), p. 9, 7 ; see also below n. 60]. On the
Qoran passage just quoted H. merely remarks: f&’innama (sic) hadihi
’l-masa’ib fi ’l-’amvrdU wa-’l-’anfusi etc. (74. 7).
17 That is, the realm of Allah’s teachings (W, nahy), His
(hudd), His “law” (hukm) ; see below passim.
guidance
Political Theology in Early Islam
145
short, an impassioned sermon defending the thesis of Free Will in
terms of the Qadar of Allah.
4. The “ Nihilists Hasan admits that he was the first to
take up the speculative study (kalam) of qadar . 18 But he disclaims
that in so doing he was guilty of introducing an innovation. It was
true that the “ predecessors ” (as-salaf), by which word he obviously
refers to the Companions of the Prophet, have not expressly taught
or demonstrated the thesis of free will. But simply because to them
it was a matter of course, an article of general agreement . 19 It was
only since “ certain people ” ( an-nds , al-qaum ) began to propagate
the opposite attitude that he saw himself obliged to rise in defense
of that thesis . 20 We suspect that these “ people ” were the political
force behind the letter of ‘Abdalmalik, which could hardly have
been dictated by sheer academic curiosity.
This suspicion is borne out not only, indirectly, by the tenor and
disposition of the risale as a whole but by frequent direct intima-
tions . 21 Formally addressed to the Calif, the treatise is a bitter
refutation of these “ people ”. Doubtless it is they who brought
Hasan’s teachings on qadar to the attention of the Calif, who would
see for himself the great social and political dangers involved in
these unauthorized teachings. Nothing, indeed, is easier to imagine
than the postulate of self-responsibility of the individual being
pointed out to the Calif as undermining the authority of State and,
especially perhaps, of the Omayyad dynasty . 22 To spice it all with
the flavor of heresy was a simple enough matter. We recall how
18 'ahdatna ’1-kalSma fihi (68, 10). Taken at its face value, this statement
would make Hasan the founder of the Qadarite movement by his own testi-
mony. (That the followers of Hasan’s kalam, called themselves “ Qadarites ”
would be quite natural, especially if the name was to imply a defensive
attitude; a qadari would then be he who, while adhering to the principle
of qadar, is given to the speculative study of it in terms of our treatise.
For other explanations of the name, see WZKM 30, p. 57.)
19 See 68. 9f. [I hold that the reading yadkuru (so Murtada, who in his
already mentioned Kitab al-munya, above n. 6, gives several passages from
our treatise, p. 12 bottom to p. 14 top) is superior to the yankaru of MS].
See also in the indorsement of al-Hajjaj (above n. 10): t ca-qala (viz.
Hasan) yadkuru 'anna ’s-salafa ’l-madina min sahabati ’n-nabiyi 'alayhi
’ s-salam kanu 'ala kalamihi etc. ( 80, n. a ) .
20 Cf. 68, 10 f. and 70, 16.
11 See 68, 16 f. and, especially, 81, 12 ff.
as See Goldziher, Torlesungen, p. 97 f.; Ritter, p. 59.
146
Julian Obermann
’Abdalmalik, as if wishing to avert the pressure brought to hear
on him, “ disbelieved ” the rumor of Hasan’s unheard-of teachings
in view of his great piety and learning — which, in the mouth of
the Calif, implied loyalty to the Commander of the Believers as a
matter of course.
However that may be, the historical significance of the theory
and practice of those “ people ” as described by Hasan can scarcely
be overrated. His characterization may well be one-sided in its
emphasis, and not free from exaggeration in this or that detail.
But, basically, the colors employed in his picture are, without
question, as genuine as his indignation. It is very regrettable that
he does not name any of these “ people ” either as individuals or
as a party ; apparently, they were too well known to the prospective
readers of Hasan’s treatise, particularly to al-Hajjaj and 'Abdal-
malik, to require specific identification. Instead, he refers to them,
in true oriental fashion, by epithets appropriate to the occasion,
such as al-juhhal, “ the ignorant”, az-zalimun, “the wrong-doers”,
al-muhti’un, “the misleaders ”. But perhaps the most character-
istic epithet applied by Hasan to his opponents is al-mubtilun,
“the nihilists ”. 23
From his own point of view, at all events, the qadar theory of
these “people” could not possibly have been epitomized more
fittingly than as a doctrine of moral and religious nihilism. Yet,
to Hasan’s boundless vexation, they themselves quote for the sanc-
tion of their theory the sacred authority of the Qoran. Here, they
argue, in the scripture of divine revelation, qadar is postulated as
complete and absolute determinism, not only physical but ethical
and spiritual as well . 24 It deprives man of any initiative, any
choice, any voluntary share in his conduct. Man’s destiny can only
be what Allah knew that, by His all-embracing qadar, it would be . 25
Any endeavor on man’s own behalf is doomed to fail, his fate
having been determined beforehand by God’s knowledge and
volition. From the very womb of his mother man has been decreed
to be “ blessed or afflicted ”. 26 Without any merit acquired, or any
24 Cf. 69, 21; 79, 16; 81, 15; 82, 2 ff.
fa-yujadiluna fa-yaquluna qad quia ’ llahu ta'ala yudillu man yashau
ica-yahdi (72, 15). fa-yufassiruna diilika bi-ra'yihim fi ’t-ta'ati wa-’l-
ma'siyati ica-yaz'umuna 'an,, a ’l-kufra tca-'l-fisqa . . . kulluha min 'inda
’llahi (referring to Sura 4: 78) (78, 5 f.). See also 74, 5 f.
25 li’anna 'ilma ’llahi huica 'l-muni’u. etc. (77, 5 ff. ).
24 Referring to Sura 11: 105: halaqa ’l-’iba’da fi butuni ummahdtihim
Political Theology in Early Islam
147
iniquity committed, his “breast” is made wide and easy or strait
and narrow. 27 He is created for hellfire or paradise, just as he is
formed tall or short, black or white. 28 Accordingly, he is rewarded
for deeds he could not help performing, and made to answer for
others he had no way of preventing ; as when the adulterer is pun-
ished for having begotten a child whose birth was, in truth, decreed
by the will of God. 29 Man triumphs or suffers for works done, not
by him, but in him, through him, despite of him. 30
5. Ik Defense of Islam. The qadar theory just described is
not presented by Hasan in a connected statement. Neither is, for
that matter, his refutation of that theory. He unfolds the argu-
ment on both sides gradually, proportionately, accumulating details
to the very end of the discussion. A certain order in plan and
composition is discernible ; but it is the dramatic order of a homily,
not the structural one of abstract reasoning. It is, as if Hasan
imagined himself engaged in a verbal dispute, with the Calif as
the judge, with the “ nihilists ” as his articulate opponents, with
['ashqiyd’a] wa-su'add’a fa-la, sabila li-man ’ashqahu 'ild ’s-sa’udati wa-ld
sabila li-man ’as'adahu ’ila, ’sh-shaqa’i (74, 20 ff. ).
27 Referring to Sura 6: 125: hassa qauman bi-sharhi suduri bi-gayri
'amalin salihin qaddamuhu voa-qauman bi-dayqi ’j - suduri ( ya’ni ’ l-quliib )
bi-gayri kufrin kdna minhum etc. (79, 13 ff.).
28 Referring to Sura 7‘ 179: fa-ja'ala li-jahannama qauman 10. yaqduruna
'aid ’t-td'ati ’llatl talabahum bihu wa-ja’ala lil-jannati qauman la yaqduruna
'aid ’l-ma'siyati ’illati nahdhum 'anhd kamd 'annahu halaqa ’l-qasira la
yaqduru ’an yakuna tawilan etc. (76, 13 ff.). See also 77, of. ( fa-sara qau-
luhum etc.) and 8 ff. ( fa-shabbahu ddlika etc.).
28 As must be inferred from Hasan's answer ( see below n. 69 ) , the
“nihilists” merely point (referring no doubt to Sura 24: 2. which refer-
ence may simply have been omitted in our text by some copyist) to the case
of adultery as an instance of punishment for a deed (viz. begetting of the
child) decreed by Allah. Ritter (p. 57 f.) calls attention to the question
of the adultery-child in the Christian-Muslim polemics of John of Damascus
(who flourished after Hasan’s time; see C. H. Becker. Islamstudien 1,
p. 434 ff. ) . But there the question is obviously considered from the aspect
of the al-’aslah theory (introduced into Islamic dogmatics by the Jlu'ta-
zilites) and has no bearing on the “ Anfaenge der Qadarije ” (see also
below p. 155 f). One of the points of indirect evidence for the authenticity
of our document is given by the fact that not a trace of foreign (Jewish
or Christian, not to say “Greek”) influence can be detected in it (except-
ing, of course, what had been introduced to the Muslim world by the
Qoran ) .
*° li’anna dalika bi-za’mihim laysa minhum wa-ld ’ilayhim wa-lakinnahu
shay’un 'umila bihirn (70, 13).
3
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Julian Oiermann
the Qoran furnishing an almost unending array of witnesses for
the attack and the defense, respectively.
From the outset, Hasan is mindful to establish a criterion of
validity for the dispute about to take place. The “ Predecessors ”,
he says, never predicated of Allah except what Allah predicates
of Himself . 31 To this observaton, we cannot help noticing, Hasan
attaches the greatest possible importance . 32 Plainly, it is to him
the inviolable criterion not only in the present dispute but in
theological questions of any kind. The religion of Allah is not
arbitrary; it is manifested, recorded, revealed. It does not depend
on the caprice of human doubt and conjecture. Its code has been
unrolled forever by Scripture and Prophets . 33 What men know of
God and His qadar, what they may ascribe to God, is only what
God reveals of, what He ascribes to. Himself. Accordingly, any
statement concerning the nature of qadar, for which there is no
evidential proof in the revealed word of Allah, is of necessity
arbitrary and therefore erroneous . 34 It is the presupposition of all
revealed religion which Hasan introduces here to defend the
integrity of Islam against the qadar theory of the “ nihilists”.
The one fact which to him overwhelmingly disproves that theory
is the fact of man’s religious obligations; the fact, that is, of com-
mands and prohibitions, of merit and guilt, revealed by God for
the guidance of the race . 35 In these obligations, Allah clearly and
manifestly reveals what He pleases and desires of man, and what
in man is obnoxious and offensive to Him. That man is never-
theless capable of doing what is wrong in the eyes of God shows
that here, in the sphere of man’s moral conduct, God’s decree. His
will, His knowledge, do not mean the same as in the sphere of
man’s physical existence. In teaching man to do what is good, in
commanding man to refrain from what is evil, Allah reveals that
31 1 ca-ld yulhiquna bi-'r-rabbi ’ilia md ’alhaqa ’r-rabbu bi-nafsihi etc.
(68. 5 f. ).
33 Turning directly to the Calif (71, 15), H. implores him: fa-qul yd
' amira- ’1-mu minina kama qdla ’llahu . . . ica-la tajal min allahi ’ilia, ma
radiya li-nafsihi ; see also 69. 19; 81. 3; and most impressive 82, Iff.
33 See 6S. 12 ( ica-laysa dinu ’lldhi bi-’l-’ amanlyi) ; 69, 15 (la-qad baxjyana
’llahu li-’ibddihi w-ma tarakahum p labsin min dinihim) ; 70, 7 ( fa-ma
taraka ’ llahu lil-’ibddi hujjatan ba'da ’ l-kutubi u:a-’r-rusuli ) .
34 fa-kullu qaulin laysa ’alayhi burhanun min kitabi ’lldhi fa-huwa
dalalatun (68, 13).
33 See 68, 6, in the context of what precedes and follows.
Political Theology in Early Islam
149
here, in the realm of good and evil, pre-destination consists in the
guidance of His teachings, that qadar here is defined by His com-
mand, confined to His command . 36 Allah does not forbid man to
be tall, or punish him for being black. Therefore, the only deter-
minant of his physical existence is, of necessity, the qadar of Allah,
man having therein no share of will, no power of change . 37 To
apply this to man’s moral destiny is to maintain that Allah openly,
in His revealed teachings, desires of man one thing, but secretely,
by His qadar, desires of him the opposite; or that He commands
man to see and hear, yet predestines him to be blind and deaf ; 38
it means, quite apart from the gross blasphemy , 39 to ascribe to God
the contrary of what He ascribes to Himself . 40
Hasan’s position may best be characterized by one of the epi-
grams so peculiar to his style : ma nahd ’llahu ‘anhu fa-laysa minhu.
“ What God forbids is (if performed by man) not from Him”.* 1
Hasan leaves no doubt that “ what God commands ” is no less
“ uot of Him ” ; that, in other words, the righteous is as much
the free agent of his fate as the wicked, the “ guidance ” being
merely a didactic, rather than a determinative, factor . 42 But it is
significant for the pragmatic trend of his thoughts that Hasan
36 qadd’uhu (see above n. 15) 'amruhu bi-’l-ma’rufi wa-’l-'adli wa-’l-’ihsani
etc. (69, 11) ; referring to Sura 33: 38 the author says in his masterful
epigrammatic style: wa-’amarahu qadaruhu wa-qadarahu 'amruhu 'anndhu
Id ya’muru bi-’l-fahshd'i (70, 4). On “knowledge” see below n. 43; on
“ will,” n. 66.
37 See 77, 9 ff . (fi'lu ’llahi bihim laysa lahum fihi taqdimu’htiydrin voa-ld
qudratun 'alu tagyirihi).
38 See 69, 20; 74, 16 f.
39 While Hasan’s argument is first and last from “ what God ascribes
to himself,” i. e. from revelation, he often points out, parenthetically, that
the advocates of moral determinism, in addition to belying the expressive
declarations of God, ascribe to Him the “ugliest attributes” (76, 15:
bi-'aqbahi ’s-sifati) . It is in this more or less casual manner that H. argues
from the concept of 'adl (a concept so fundamental in the school of the
Mu'tazila) ; cf. 68, 8 ( laysa bi-zallamin) ; 73, 14: 74. 17; especially inter-
esting is 75, 6, where H- terms the determinists as al-muhdlifuna li’amri
’llahi ica-kitdbihi wa-'adlihi.
40 fa-hal yadri ha’uld'i ’l-juhhalu ' aid man raddut ’innamd raddii 'aid
’lldhi ta’dla! (81, 15).
41 See 69, 7.
42 See 70, 9 ff. ( qad ja'ala flhim min al-qudrati etc.) ; and especially 80,
Iff. Referring to Sura 76: 3 {'innd hadaynahu ’s-sabila), H- remarks:
yaqulu 'arrafndhu ’t-tariqa 'immd, 'an yashkura etc. (71, 12).
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Julian Obermann
dwells with special emphasis on removing the absolutism of qadar
from “ evil ” and from “ what God forbids ”. 43 There can be but
little doubt that the “ people ” who branded him an “ innovator ”
made the most of their qadar theory by applying it in practice
whenever suitable. We will see that Hasan does not hesitate to
accuse them of using qadar as an excuse for their selfishness and
licentiousness, their “ sinful appetites and treacherous iniquities ”. 44
That at the time of Hasan local governors, or government officials,
actually were in the habit of justifying their graft and acts of
tyranny by pointing to qadar, we are told on good authority, by
Ibn Qutaiba . 45 And it is out of this situation that we may best
understand why his risale is partial 46 to such epigrammatic excla-
43 A particularly instructive instance of this may be seen in the way H.
discusses the problem of God’s knowledge. Theoretically, he holds of course
that Allah’s 'ilm determines neither the fate of the believer nor that of the
unbeliever. But since his opponents, for apparent reasons, emphasize the
negative effect of the divine 'Urn, H.'s refutation is directed accordingly:
God’s knowing that some people will be unbelievers merely means that He
knew beforehand that they will choose unbelief of their own free will
(bi-’htiyarihim) and that, consequently, they would be equally able to for-
sake unbelief if they would choose to “ abhore ” it (77, 11 ff.). Remarkably
enough. H. finds evidence for this concept of God’s conditioned, rather than
conditioning, knowledge in the H[idr story and in the case of the Munafiqun
<77 f. ) , both of which seem to have led the “nihilists” to their “dispu-
tation” of 'ilm. (Cf. Ibn Shalnn, Faraj. p. 10 ff.].
“See 68, 11, and below in this article.
* B Kit ab al-ma arif , p. 225. It is noteworthy that the case is brought to
H. s attention by the two men who head the List of Qadarites given bv
Ibn Qutaiba (p. 301). Ma’bad al-Juhani and ’Ata' b. Yasar. As the report
reads, one gains the impression of two pupils asking their master’s opinion
( fa-yasalanihi ) in a question of practical theology. At any rate, he
answers the question in terms of our treatise: kadaba 'a'dau ’llahi.
( Mark, too, that the third “ Qadarite ” in Ibn Qutaiba’s List, 'Amr b.
’Ubaid, is actually known to have been a pupil of H.’s). I take it that the
mulak of the report are the governors of the Calif and their subordinates.
** e ff ec t of this one-sidedness may be seen in a statement by a con-
temporary of Hasan. Da ud b. ’Abi Hind, according to which H. had taught
that all is determined by qadar except “the works of impiety” (rather
than ' both the works of piety and impiety,” as required by our treatise) ;
Murtada. p. 12. 1. 3 bottom: kullu shay'in bi-qadd’i ’llahi ica-qadarihi 'ilia
’l-maasi. (The sentence sounds almost like a literal translation of the
well known Agadic saying : hak-kol bide shamayim has miyyir’at shamayim
{Bab. Ber. 33b) ; but the two utterances have hardly more in common than
the similarity of the religious-historical situation out of which they were
formulated).
Political Theology in Early Islam
151
mations as “ Violence and tyranny are not of the decree of Allah ” ;
u He does not order abominations ”. “ Guidance comes from
Allah, but error is of man’s own doing ! ” 47
In Hasan’s conviction, then, implicit evidence of moral freedom
is given by each “ thou shalt ” and “ thou shalt not ”, in every
pronouncement of divine retribution, in all instances of revelation
calling upon man to serve God. But he goes further. He bids the
Calif not to be impatient of the length of his discourse as he is
about to introduce explicit evidence. He quotes the cases of Adam,
Moses, Muhammed, and even of Cain, Pharaoh, Hudhud, as
“ binding proofs ” against those who shift the responsibility of
their shortcomings to God. Thus Adam refers to his sin by saying
“ we have wronged our souls ”, not by saying “ it was Thy qadar
and qada' ”. The same is true of all other prophets. None of them
ever failed to attribute to themselves, rather than to God, errors
they occasionally committed . 48 But easiest of all Hasan finds
“ evidential proof ” by applying the method of contradictio in
adjecto. Thus, in the words of the Qoran, Allah says: Do ye what
ye wish (not: “what I predestined [ qadartu ] upon you”); or
He who exercises qadar to guide (not: “who exercises qadar to
lead astray”); or Let him, who will, believe; and let him, who
will, disbelieve (not: “let him, whom I will, believe; and let him,
whom I will, disbelieve ”) ; or As a reward for what ye have done
(not: “for what was done in you”, nor “for what I decreed
[kalabtu] upon you ”). 49
Not so easy is it for Hasan to disprove the claim of the “ nihil-
ists ” that their theory of qadar, too, is based on the teachings of
the Qoran. To his religious conscience, the absurdity of such a
claim is a foregone conclusion, to be sure. Could the word of
Allah belie itself ; the teachings of the “ most perfect revelation ”
contradict one another ? 50 But, as was to be the experience of so
many protagonists of Islam after Hasan — not to mention that of
17 See 69, 8; 71, 18 (al-huda min allah ica-’d-dalal min al-'ibad) ; cf.
above n. 36.
48 See 72, 5-12; 71, 15 f. ; 82, 16-19; and above n. 15.
“See 69, 14; 69, 21-70, 3; 70, 14 f. The Qoran passages referred to are
(in the order in which they have been quoted above) : Sura 41 : 40; S7 : 3;
18: 29; 32: 17. On katabtu = qadartu, see Goldziher’s review of de Vlieger,
Kitab al-qadar, ZD MG 57, p. 396 f.
60 Comp 70, 16-71, 2.
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Julian Olermann
his kindred spirits in Judaism and Christianity — theological self-
consistency of revelation could only be maintained by means of the
dialectic gymnastics of exegesis. And it is quite interesting to note
that Hasan gives much less space to the many Qoranic passages
favoring his thesis than to the interpretation ( ta’ml ) of the rela-
tively few passages alleged to suggest the antithesis . 51
We meet here Hasan as an exegete of astonishing skill and
resourcefulness. Perhaps it is the pride and sensitiveness of one
who was himself of non-Arab descent , 52 when he shows that the
“ arguments ” of his opponents are not only in each case based on
their misinterpreting the spirit, but in some cases on their insuffi-
cient understanding of the language, of the Qoran. Allah revealed
the Qoran to people who should understand the proprieties of
Arabic ! Hasan himself is not reluctant to elucidate, when neces-
sary, these proprieties from Arabic poetry or even from popular
usage . 53 That according to the Qoran many people are created
“ for hellfire ” ; that no one can believe except by Allah’s “ per-
mission ” ; that man does not choose what is good “ unless Allah
wishes ”• — these and similar utterances prove, when properly under-
stood, the exact opposite of what the determinists claim that they
prove. The Arabic preposition “ for ”, li , may be used to indicate
not only purpose, intention, but also consequence, result, outcome;
the Arabic word for “permission”, 'idn, is synonymous with
tahliya, thus implying the act of giving access, of letting alone, of
refraining from interference ; Allah’s “ will ” as a pre-condition
of man s choosing what is good means, in truth, His willingness
to teach and reveal to man what good is . 54 As Hasan takes up one
after another of the Qoran passages alleged to postulate the moral
absolutism of qadar, they turn out, in the light of his exegesis, to
lend additional support and force to the theology of free will, which
Of some 90 passages from the Qoran discussed more or less fully in
our treatise, only about 10 or 12 are mimma yunazi'iina (var. yujadiluna )
f‘hi, their re-interpretation by H. occupies the major part of our text
72, 13 to 81, 12.
Of Persian extraction, H. seems even to have retained (or acquired?)
the ability to speak and to write Persian (see Tbn Sa'd, p. 123, 12:
fa-qala bi-’l-farisiyyati, and cf. Sehaeder, p. 47 and 49).
See 76, 20-77, 3; and 79, 8 (t ca-qad taqulu, ’l-'arab).
See 76, 16 ff.; 73, 11 f. and 16 f. The Qoran passages referred to are
(again in the order quoted above): Sura 7: 179; 10, 100: 81- 29 (Cf
n. 66.) '
Political Theology in Early Islam 153
may well claim him as its founder and originator in Islam. [See
below, note 12].
To Hasan himself the controversy of Moral Determinism vs.
Free Will is not an isolated theoretical question of theology. We
have already seen that the sponsors of this controversy must have
presented a politically powerful party, and we may assume that it
was not without personal risk of liberty, if not of life, to attack
them one and all. Sunnite writers relate — with proper contempt,
of course, — the names of two pioneers of the Qadarite movement,
Ma'bad al-Juhanl and Gaylan ad-Dimishql. The former seems to
have been an intimate, perhaps a pupil, of Hasan ; the latter is said
to have been a disciple of Ma'bad. Both are reported to have been
sentenced to death for their adherence to the thesis of free will. 55
That Hasan, too, was in danger must be inferred not only from the
letter of 'Abdalmalik — who is said to have been responsible for
Ma'bad’s verdict in the year 80 a. h. 56 — but particularly from the
warm plea which al-Hajjaj enters on Hasan's behalf when sub-
mitting his brief to the Calif. 57
Hasan, however, exercises no restraint, and leaves nothing unsaid.
His personal denunciation of the “nihilists" is as aggressive and
ardent as his theological refutation. He compares them with the
heathens at the time of Muhammed who, too, claimed that in their
abominations they follow the ways of their fathers. 53 Once, he
asks, rhetorically, whether they realize that it is against Allah that
their controversy ( radd ) is turned. He implores the Calif to
66 fbn Qutaiba, p. 244; ( Shahrastflni, p. IT); Murtada, p. 15 ff. On
Ma'bad’s relationship to Hasan, ef. Kitub al-ila'arif 225 (above n. 45) and
Ibn 'Asakir ( Ritter, p. 60 ) . See the next note.
68 Tagrlbirdi, Nujum. (ed. T. G. J. Juynboll and B. F. Matthes) 1, p. 222,
(cf. H. Steiner, Die Mu'taziliten, p. 29, n. 2); see also Goidziher,
Vorlesungen , p. 98 f.
57 Above n. 10. A contemporary admirer tells how he tried to make H.
forego his stand in the qadar problem by actually threatening him with
reprisals from the government, Tabari, p. 2492. 16: haddadtuhu bi-’s-
sultan. (Very instructive is the addition in Ibn Sa'd. p. 122. 3: fa-qala
la ’a’udu fihi ba'da ’l-yauma — a clear instance of “whitewashing” of
Hasan’s reputation in terms of Sunnite piety ! See also p. 122, 4 f. ) .
On ’Ayyub’s statement Murtada remarks: wa-kana l-Hasanu fi za muni
'uzmi ’ l-hatari min bani ’Vmayyati ica-rubbama yattaqi (the last clause is
made improbable by the fact of our risale), Munya. p. 15.
6S See 70, 4 ff. (i ca-la-qart quia dalika qaumun fa-'aba ’liahu 'alayhim,
referring to Sura 7: 28).
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Julian Obermann
dissociate himself from people who know not what qadar means,
merely using it as an excuse for their moral irresponsibility. They
seek zestfully after the doubtful passages of the Qoran, out of the
rebellion of their heart against their duties and obligations as
Muslims . 59 Unwilling to take upon themselves the burden of the
truth, they adhere to the ease and levity of the untruth. Their
insincerity is apparent by the way they belie the very principle which
they profess to guard. They take good care of themselves, without
leaving it to the qadar of Allah. They employ every means of care
and precaution to protect their property, to increase their material
goods. But when it comes to their spiritual well-being, they leave
it to qadar. Confronted with the imperatives of religion, they
point to the writing-reed of Fate that had inscribed their foreheads
with “ blessed ” or “ afflicted ”. 60 To the call of Allah himself,
admonishing them to believe, to obey, to return, they reply, brazenly
and in ill faith, that their will is overwhelmed, their endeavor
interfered with, their intention rendered futile, by the Qadar of
Allah . 61
6. Authenticity. It was inevitable that the powerful voice
of his “ message ” should reverberate in the several branches of
Muslim theology as they eventually developed in the generations
after Hasan. This may seem to render the question of authenticity
rather difficult. In reality such a question hardly exists. Apart
from the obviously editorial remarks of Shahrastani, mentioned
above, it is hard to detect any reasonable ground for doubting the
genuineness of the document. The historical reality lingers from
E " See 82, 1 (above n. 40) ; 08, 16-69, 1; 72, 14 ff.
See 75, 6-76, 2. The expression jaffati ’l-'aqlamu tca-kutiba 'aid ’l-jabini
makes it especially clear how much the qadar concept of the “ nihilists ”
still bore the earmarks of ancient Arab fatalism. Nevertheless, repercussions
of these very words may be found in Sunnite Hadit; see, e. g.. Buharf 4,
p. 251, Bub jaffa ’ l-qalamu ; see also Goldziher, ZDMG, 33, p. 623, n. 1;
and 57, p. 398 ff. (Goldziher's remark that in den dlteren Kadar-Spriichen
des Islam finden t cir sic — viz. the concept of the inscribed forehead — noch
nicht is now invalidated by the occurrence of that concept in the text before
us. Its striking parallels both in Indian literature, pointed out by G., and
in the Old Testament — Ez. 9 : 4 ; cf. Is. 4 : 3 — would require, and deserve,
a critical investigation in itself. )
61 See the impressive finale of our text 82, 1 ff. which, at the same time,
forms the emotional climax of the risdle, and must be read in the original
to be fully appreciated.
Political Theology in Early Islam
155
the first to the last line of our risale, What could possibly have
been the motive of some late theologian who, having “ forged ”
both a letter of ‘Abdalmalik and a reply by Hasan, went to the
pains of fabricating also a second recension with an indorsement
of the revered Hasan by the universally despised Omayyad general
al-Hajjaj ?
But even if we were to go by the test of inner evidence alone,
we would be led in the direction of Hasan, certainly as to his age,
almost certainly as to the type of piety he is known to have repre-
sented . 62 It is all but inconceivable that anyone undertaking to
defend the thesis of free will in Hasan’s name, but after his times,
would be as completely void of the rationalism and schematism of
the Mu'tazilites, the classical champions of that thesis, as our
risale appears to be. It is well to recall the main points of argu-
ment common to the Mu'tazilites. To them it is reason, 'aql, that
makes the divine attribute of justice, ‘adl, a sort of axiomatic idea
a priori; therefore, God is compelled, wujiba ‘ alayhi , He is bound
by reason, not only to grant His creatures freedom of action, but
to administrate their affairs to their greatest possible advantage
(al-’aslah) ; reason, on the other hand, requires that man dis-
criminate good and evil independent, regardless, of revelation.
All this is entirely foreign to the author of our treatise. We
have seen that his sole criterion in defense of free will is that of
revelation. The word of God to him is light above darkness, life
above death. To believe in moral determinism, he once exclaims,
is to render God’s teachings to mankind void and meaningless . 63
His treatment of qadar is theocentric rather than homocentric;
he starts, not from the reason of man, but from the manifested will
of God. He does take justice in the divine measures of reward and
punishment for granted, but primarily because it is attested to by
revelation, and even then it is not the arithmetical ' adl of the
Mufiazila . 64 He would have been horrified at the very thought that
there be anything that God “ must ” or “ cannot ” — an idea
'“See above the notes 5, 45, 46, 57, and below n. 67 and 72; see also
Ritter, 61 ff.
•* See 70, 7, and 74, 22-75. 1.
** We have seen (above n. 39) that 'adl, while used in the author's argu-
mentation against his opponents, has not yet reached the methodic rigidity,
nor the terminological force, of later times. This is even more true of the
other pillar of the Mu'tazilite system, of 'aql, which is mentioned only once
in our treatise (74, 19), and in a most casual way, at that.
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Julian Obermann
so essential with the Mu”tazilites . 65 We remember, too, how to him
man can only choose good, know what is good, because God has
taught and revealed it to him . 66 Nor does he propose to explain
the suffering of the innocent, or rationalize about the prosperity of
the wicked. The idea of al-’aslah is unknown to him, both in word
and spirit.
In later times, Muslim readers of our treatise seem to have been
bewildered by its author appearing to advocate determinism no less
than free will. 6T One might as well be surprised to find that Plato
is not a consistent enough Stoicist. The very inconsistency of our
author betrays his historicity, exposes the logic of Early Islam.
His religious genius can perceive man only as free to serve God,
to choose between good and evil, righteousness and wickedness.
Here the concept of an ethical-didactic will of Allah had broken
through the absolutism of His decree ; and to this epochal achieve-
ment of Islam our author clings, heroically, against the deep-seated,
national-Arab trends of his time and environment. But he lived
too near the time of Jdhiliyya himself to have overcome altogether
the concept of dahr, 6S the historical predecessor of qadar. Man’s
physical existence, his material woe and weal, is still in absolute
control of qadar. In the case of adultery our author plainly agrees
with the “ nihilists ” that the child is the product of pre-
destination ; only to him the adulterer is punished for having
disobeyed the command of Allah, not for having begotten the
child . 69
Yet, having become restricted to the sphere of material woe and
weal, qadar lost its sharpest edges, of terror and hopelessness. By
05 Referring to Sura 6 : 35, the author even says : lau shd’a ’an yajbu-
rahum 'alii ’t-tu'ati la-kana qtidiran (76, 6).
s ‘' See 71, 3; 73, 17 ( fa-min mashi’atihi land ’l-hayra qabla ’an nashd’a ’an
(= annahu) dalland 'alayhi ica-bayyanahu lana) ; see above n. 42.
87 Shahrastani, p. 32, 3 bottom (wa-’l-'ajab !) . (Massignon, Essai, p.
173: en la mitigeant ! ) One of H.’s pupils, accused of disloyalty to his
master (apparently after the latter had died), justifies his position by
saying that H. was confusing (kana muhallitan ; perhaps: muhallatan,
confused”), in that he sometimes taught freedom and sometimes again
determinism (Tabarsi, Ihtijaj , quoted in Massignon, Recueil, p. 4, 15).
03 See WZKM 30, p. 60 f.
89 See 74, 2 (t ca-laysa yu'addibu 'lluhu ’z-zaniya 'ala, ’l-walad) . Mark
the interesting comparison of the adulterer with one who sows in an acre
he does not rightfully own, which may nevertheless yield crops by God’s
will.
Political Theology in Early Islam
157
the revolutionary deed of Muhammed, qadar had become the qadar
of God; and this is what, in effect, our author is holding forth to
his opponents all the time. Outside the moral-religious sphere,
man’s destiny, with its variable of success and failure, of happiness
and misery, is still wholly determined by heavenly decree. But it
had become the decree of a personal God, who tests man with the
joys and sorrows of life, so that he may not despair for what he
misses, nor rejoice too much in what he possesses. Man’s heart
is still made “ wide ” or “ narrow ”, but only in retribution for
what he has accomplished, or failed to accomplish, by his own
power and will . 70 The “ writing-reed ” of blind Fatum has been
replaced by the sunna of Allah, by the huhm of Allah, who guides
and tests, punishes and rewards, helps and forgives . 71
It remained for the coming generations of Islam to develop more
methodic means of speculation, and to find more systematic answers
to the permanent questions of theology faced by the author of our
treatise. What he offers are mere rudiments and, again, only
such rudiments as W'ere indispensable for the basic institutions of
Islam. But just therein lies the strongest test of his authenticity.
Elements may be found in our risale that make its author appear
as much a forerunner of Sufism, as other elements would establish
him a pioneer of the Mu'tazila. Yet it would be altogether unwar-
ranted to stamp him with either label. His treatise is the product
of no school, it follows no scheme, it employs no set terminology. It
is the spontaneous outcry of a preacher of Islam who sees its foun-
dations at stake, its message of hope and its code of observances
annulled by a conservatism that antedated even Muhammed . 72 In
70 See below, ad “ P. 80, 1. 3-6 and cf. above n. 27.
71 Especially interesting is in this respect the author’s discussion of
shark as-sudur (79, 10-81, 12). It shows how easily the seed sown by H.’s
theological speculation of qadar might ripen both into Sufic piety and
Mu'tazilite dialectics. Cf. such striking passages as 74. 8 ff. ( ... 'annahu
mubtalind fi hadihi ’d-dunyd bi-’sh-shiddati ira-’r-raha . . . likayla na’sa
etc.); 79, 2 ff. ( fa-hadihi sunnatu ’llahi) ; 80, 7 ff. [ica-lam yadkur alld.hu
lahum ddlika li-yaqta'a rajd’ahum, \ca-la li-yu’yisahum min rahmatihi rca-
fadlihi etc.) ; and even more decisive 81. 8 ff. ( Jam yaj'al al-’umura hatman
'aid ’l-'ibdd etc.).
72 It is the great irony of Muhammedan history, and of religious history
in general, that the thesis by which Islam is here protected against com-
plete disintegration was to become obnoxious to Muslim orthodoxy, so that
Abbasid caliphs, with but few shining exceptions, were to find themselves,
in this respect, one with their Omayvad predecessors whom they otherwise
158
Julian Obermann
the school of the Mu'tazilites, qadar developed into a formidable
system by which rationalism, perhaps better, * aqlism , defended
itself against a dogmatic concept of omnipotence, and a funda-
mentalist interpretation of the Qoran. In Sufism, on the other
hand, qadar was sublimated into tawakkul, and religious practice
subordinated to intention and meditation. Neither of these stages
had yet been reached at the time of our treatise. Here moral
responsibility and pragmatic self-discipline of the believer are still
the supreme need, the dire issue, of young Islam consolidating itself
against the fatalistic earpe diem of recent paganism.
7. Textual. Professor Eitter has earned our thanks for
making this important document available to us. But the text he
gives, while admirable as a whole, leaves much to be desired as to
detail. Obviously, it was not his intention to undertake an ex-
haustive textual critique of his manuscript material, or even to
mark off the text difficulties as such. In what follows only a cross-
section of these difficulties can be offered, with preference given to
passages that bear on the understanding of the risale, and to such
obvious misreadings as could be easily amended.
P.71, 1.16: Between <jJJI _JU and something is evi-
dently missing; presumably it is the conjunction <jj|. Curiously
enough, the same omission seems to occur two other times in our
text, as will be seen below.
P. 72, 1. 2 f. : The incomplete quotation of the Qoran verse
so utterly condemned. If anything becomes established by our document
it is the fact that the qadar ideology was the direct and inevitable out-
growth of the deed of Jluliammed ; and that, accordingly, the theory of its
foreign origin, vaguely repeated ever since the times of Alfred von Kremer
(cf. his Kulturgeschichtliche Streifziiege, p. 2ff.) should be abandoned once
for all. The evidence from our risale becomes especially irrevocable when
combined with the reluctant, and therefore all the more trustworthy, testi-
mony which we have been able to adduce from Sunnite writers. We could
not very well expect them to say in as many words that their great and
revered Hasan was the founder of the. to them disreputable, Qadriyya.
But, seen critically, their very disavowals (Tabari 2493, 20; al-Hasan
zayyagahu ’l-Qadariyyatu; Ibn Sa’d 127, 21: kana 'ahla ’l-qadari yanta-
hilitna ’l-Hasan . . . ica-katm qauluhu muhalifan lahum ) are tale-telling.
Until, therefore, and unless evidence to the contrary be established, we
must consider the Qadarite movement as having rooted in the kind of piety
brought to light by our document, and Hasan al-Basri as the spiritual
head of that movement.
Political Theology in Early Islam
159
(Sura 41: 17) cannot have been intended by the author. Restore
therefore: ^J| ^J|
Oy- *4 U) [q^I- This omission, apparently the error of
an early copyist, seems to have led to the textual confusion in
h 4: ^11 jjg which is extremely awkward.
There can be no doubt that in the original the text read p j . ^
jJI ^Lssx— 1 [c_i)A*ll]. — L. 6: The word ^.v-s< while
not impossible, is in view of the context ( ^*jCs) ) very improbable.
Read : . — L. 15 : As must be inferred from the infinitive
I, the preceding final verb, no doubt in the original,
was intended as (not c y^J, ) ; cf. p. 67, 1. 15.
P. 73, 1. 1 : I assume that the text has scriptio defectiva but is
otherwise correct as it stands : (vl» U’l=) l^. L. 8 ff. :
The fusion of two different, but very similar, Qoran verses (Sura
10: 33 and 40: 6) may well be original, the author quoting from
memory. In 1. 15, however, the case is just the reverse, and the
passage . . . c , 1 should be deleted. Having written correctly
the beginning of Sura 81 : 28, the copyist continued erroneously
with Sura 74 : 37 which has the identical beginning ) ,
but could hardly have been intended for the present context. The
error, by homceoteleuton, was all the more natural as in what pre-
cedes (p. 70, 1. 9) Sura 74: 37 had actually been quoted. — L. 16 f. :
The passage U *Uo 0 ) D) ^ ^ <ddl sounds
like a subtle epigram of Sufic meditation, and this is perhaps why
some copyist wrote it this way. But it is certainly wrong as it
stands. Read : U 0 ) Dl ^ ^ [^1 ]
P. 74, 1. 1 : Add probably after ( c f. yatub 'alayna
in what immediately precedes).— L. 8: I suppose that the original
text read: (not li . — L. 9: In the phrase
jv- ° J p J the third word is a correction of the erroneously
written second word (a procedure usual with oriental copyists). 73
P.75,1.8: The extremely improbable reading \*J
JhUI ^. g As-is the result of mispunctuation on the part of some
73 Cf., e. g., Ibn Shahin, Faraj , p. 31, 9: Xi'C r?“i' iXl = 1
U and similarly passim. w
160
Julian Olermann
copyist. The intended punctuation is JLUI <5sJ'
(as p. 76, 1. 2 !) . — L. 10 : is most likely = wa-takuzzu (see
Lane, VII, p. 2608, col. 1). — L. 12: Eead <3 yi (not <s3), as in
1. 16. — L. 18: I believe that l&jlj is simply miswritten for
(the fern, suffix referring to jljJl, of course).
P. 76, 1. 15: The clause seems to he mis-
placed from 1. 14; it should be made to follow the words
P.77,1.9: Delete the words dUl as a repetition from
1. 8 (whereby ^3 1 was simply miswritten for The errone-
ous addition led some copyist to “ correct ” the fern, suffix at the
end of the clause into a masculine one, thus making it refer to
Allah. Unquestionably, the clause read in the original:
^33 — L. 12 : I doubt that ^UjV) was intended
by the author. The context requires a word synonymous with the
immediately following _Ja* 33; probably, then, ,
P. 78, 1. 7 : The phrase U renders the context pointless.
Read, as in the next line, U (the mistake may have been
caused by naqs in 1. 9).
P. 79, 1. 4: Again an dil seems to have been omitted after
as twice above. — L. 10 : Read <uj (in lieu of ). — L. 17 f. : The
word is obviously misprinted for the numeral \
for and I take it, for l$j.
P. 80, 1. 3-6 : The passage is badly confused in the edited text.
From a close examination of the context (in what precedes, an
explanation is given for the “ widening ” of heart paralleling very
closely the one given here for the “narrowing”) it becomes ap-
parent that when the copyist responsible for the present text
reached the word <s3Xo., in 1. 4, his eye wandered to
in 1. 6, leaving out the matter that stood between these two words.
Upon reaching the word he noticed his mistake and inserted
the omitted passage here, hut instead of repeating fl ’djil . . , wa-
’t-faubati in its entirety, he repeated only the beginning and the
end of it. The situation may be seen from the following juxta-
position :
Political Theology in Early Islam
161
The Original Text.
*
Sclk5i <sj dll' Sjol U
l A -,,-6 dll' i3*^
&J&G ^ Jjt-iSJ lojts’
(_sA!i LjjJ! ^e>,b , gj dsJ^*oJ 6j2^} dl di-o
IgJI ^£wXo }j*s U dJ^il'^J j^di li^l
The Edited Text.
&j££ dclkl' ^ dl dll' SjJ Lo qo)
djli^J ^Axo ^0 ^J6 J LjpJl J^b d)A*o^
b jE*. lil^wo & dll I 41^x1
Sjiio di i~o £ b~i' ^ '^=>j bb
I gA ' tgl y^-o b blA' b ^^9 dxlA,,o*
P. 81, 1. 12 : Read l ^j> instead of ( y C j, and place the sign for
the end of the sentence before, rather than after, the words lAg-^i
Jytlh— L. 14: The use of fern. sg. in iacTukum (as referring
to ar-rusul) is very odd. I assume that = ^*i.cjd (for
^_y?Jo), not
P. 82, 1. 12: After add dll! (left out by the printer?). —
L. 15 f. : The reading ^)l dl p$ -,UI iUj dll'
is quite impossible. In what precedes, the author cites an instance
from the Qoran which, according to the “ nihilists ”, evidences the
incompatibility of qadar and ’amr: Muhammed, acting under the
compulsion of qadar, prohibits something against the command of
Allah, and is then rebuked for it. Here, the same instance is cited,
only with the Prophet permitting something against the command
of Allah. Read, therefore: d~-J ^b dll'
^Ji ^*§1. See above, n. 15.
162
Julian Obermann
It will be seen that nearly all of the above difficulties may be
reduced to two types of scribal error: (a) cases of addition, omis-
sion or misplacement, due to homoeoteleuton ; and (b) cases of
improper punctuation. Obviously, the text left the hand of the
author either with very few or no diacritical points. This will
have to be borne in mind by anyone who would undertake a more
detailed study of the Arabic document than could be offered at the
present occasion, and especially a critical translation of the edited
text — an undertaking that can not be recommended strongly
enough.
IS THE BOOMERANG ORIENTAL ? 1
D. S. Davidson
University of Pennsylvania
Of the various weapons of aboriginal peoples which have been
given a romantic setting in popular fancy, none seems to be so
cloaked with misconception as the boomerang of the Australians.
The various misunderstandings current in lay opinion, but also
found occasionally in scientific circles, apparently are founded upon
the inaccurate and ambiguous reports which emanated from Aus-
tralia during the period of initial contact between Europeans and
the aborigines. At that time a reputation based upon only partial
truth was given the boomerang outside of Australia and once estab-
lished, it has been perpetuated by subsequent tradition. These
beliefs have not only mitigated against a satisfactory understand-
ing of the position of the boomerang in Australian culture but have
confused the identity of weapons in other parts of the world which
have been compared with it.
Of the popular fallacies associated with the boomerang perhaps
the most widespread and deep-rooted is the belief that all boomer-
angs are of the returning type. As a matter of fact, returning
boomerangs constitute only a very small percentage of Australian
boomerangs, a percentage difficult to estimate accurately but which
under normal aboriginal conditions may have been exceedingly
small. It is important to note this small ratio for the lack of its
appreciation is the basis of much of the misunderstanding with
which we are concerned. In order to distinguish the two types we
will henceforth use the word boomerang to imply the ordinary
varieties which do not return to the thrower, the sense in which
the word is used in Australia : and the term “ returning boomer-
ang ” to designate the small percentage which, when thrown prop-
erly, perform certain gyrations in the air and finally fall near the
point from which they were hurled.
It is also generally believed that the returning boomerang is a
weapon and that it is used in war and for hunting. These func-
1 This paper is intended to supplement “ Australian Throwing-sticks,
Throwing-clubs, and Boomerangs.” one of a series of studies made in Aus-
tralia by the writer under a Fellowship grant by the Social Science
Research Council.
4
163
164
D. S. Davidson
tions, however, with few exceptions, are found associated only with
ordinary boomerangs. The returning boomerang is regarded by
the aborigines as a toy to be thrown for amusement. In only a few
instances are there reports that it is used for other purposes, al-
though in emergencies it may be utilized as a weapon in the same
manner as any other suitable object.
It is likewise important to understand that the returning boomer-
ang, contrary to popular belief, will not return to the thrower if it
strikes any object during its flight. In most cases such a happen-
ing would cause it to fall directly to the ground. Occasionally if
an obstacle is not struck squarely, the stick may be deflected and
started on a different course of flight, but in such an event, the
point of landing would be altered. The common belief, therefore,
that the boomerang will return to the hand of the thrower after it
has struck the enemy or the prey has no basis in fact.
Lastly, neither ordinary nor returning boomerangs are ubiquitous
in Australia. Although their distributions are widespread, there
are certain rather extensive areas in which both varieties are un-
known. Returning boomerangs have not been found among tribes
which do not possess the ordinary type but the ordinary varieties
are present in some regions where the returners are known to be
lacking.
A ustral ian JI issile-St icks
Basically considered, the boomerang should be regarded as a
form of missile-stick of which there are three classes in Australia.
For com enience these may be spoken of as 1. Throwing-sticks, 2.
Boomerangs and 3. Throwing-clubs.
The Australian throwing-stick is a straight or slightly curved
peeled stick about two feet in length, round in cross section, with
a diameter of slightly more than one inch, and which tapers slightly
to roundly or bluntly pointed extremities.
The boomerang, on the other hand, is a curved stick, character-
ized by a transverse section with two equal or unequal convex sur-
faces. or one convex and one flat surface and which tapers abruptly
or gradually to extremities of various shapes. In length, boomer-
angs vary from about 18 inches to 3 feet. There are a few larger
ones, some 8 feet long, which may be used for striking, or in cere-
monies. Ihese are not thrown and should be termed ‘ m boomerang-
clubs.” 6
Is the Boomerang Oriental?
165
The throwing-club is a weapon characterized by knobs, flares,
bulges or other features carved in the solid matrix and which is used
in one hand for throwing or for striking. These weapons differ
only in proportions from larger counterparts, clubs, which require
two hands for use and are not thrown.
Throwing-sticks, it seems obvious, are the most simple of the
three classes of missile-sticks in that they approach closely a natural
form which requires very little alteration in manufacture. They
are distributed throughout the western half of Australia and were
characteristic of the aboriginal culture of Tasmania. They also
appear sporadically in the geographically intermediate area of
southeastern Australia where throwing-clubs prevail. It appears,
therefore, that throwing-sticks are of relatively great antiquity, by
virtue of their appearance in Tasmania, and that they have been
superceded in southeastern Australia by throwing-clubs. It may
be that throwing-sticks were an original possession of the invading
Tasmanians.
Throwing-clubs are lacking in Tasmania and the western half
of the continent but are found throughout Eastern Australia from
Victoria and South Australia to Torres Straits where their distri-
bution connects with the appearances of similar but not identical
forms in New Guinea. Although many varieties appear to be in-
digenous to the continent, fundamentally it would seem that throw-
ing-clubs in some undetermined basic form or in concept diffused
to Australia from New Guinea and have supplanted the use of
throwing-sticks in a large part of eastern Australia.
Boomerangs vary so much in their forms, sizes and weights that
it is a difficult matter to classify them into types and varieties.
Some are symmetrical in form, others have one arm longer than
the other. In many specimens the width is fairly constant through-
out the greater part of the weapon, in others it is relatively great at
the bend and may decrease gradually or abruptly as the ends are
approached. The degree of curvature also shows much variation
and may range from a right angle or less to almost 180°. For the
shape of cross-section, we find some examples thin and wafer-like,
whereas others may be almost round, or in those specimens having
one flat surface, almost hemispherical. The extremities run the
g am ut from round to pointed, and in addition there are several
varieties of specialized ends with angular or other features which
set them off from the more usual forms. Finally there is the ques-
166
D. S. Davidson
tion of a longitudinal twist, a feature necessary to the returning
boomerangs but also one occasionally found to a slighter degree
and perhaps accidentally in those not intended for use as playthings.
When all these variable features are taken into consideration it
is clear that the number of combinations is infinite and that it is a
most difficult matter to describe the differences between the boomer-
angs of many regions of the continent. There is no one feature
sufficiently constant to serve as a standard. Nevertheless in any
one area the boomerangs, like other culture traits, generally are
found to conform to certain local patterns, and with close observa-
tion it is possible to consign fairly accurately many specimens to
the sections of the continent from which they came. In some in-
stances, distinguishing features, such as a peculiar feature in shape
or in decoration, may permit the identification of a relatively small
area as the place of manufacture. In a few cases the form may be
of such a general nature that provenience can be indicated only
vaguely.
Ordinary boomerangs are common throughout Australia except
in the three northern peninsulas, the Kimberley district, northern
North Australia and the Cape A’ork peninsula, and possibly in a
few small districts in the southern part of the continent. They
were also lacking in Tasmania.
Returning Boomerangs
The returning boomerang, obviously a variant of the ordinary
boomerang, differs from the latter in certain important respects
which in many cases are differences in degree, not in kind. Re-
turning boomerangs are characterized by (1) a curvature which
resembles the arc of a hyperbola; (2) a “ rounding,” by which one
of the surfaces in transverse section shows a greater curvature than
the other : and ( 3 ) a “ twisting,” by which the arms exhibit a
longitudinal twist of from 2° to 3° similar to the blades of a screw
propeller. However, since many ordinary boomerangs are charac-
terized by one or more of these traits or may differ only slightly in
all three respects, it is often a most difficult matter to determine
whether a specimen is a returner, especially in museum collections
where warping may have taken place. Without all of the features
enumerated a boomerang cannot be made to return to the thrower.
Returning boomerangs are of widespread distribution. Although
affirmatne reports are not available to show their appearance in
Is the Boomerang Oriental?
167
all regions they are specifically denied only for a large part of the
Central Australia-southern North Australia area where ordinary
boomerangs are in use. It is presumptive to state that they are
coexistent with ordinary boomerangs throughout the remainder of
the distribution of the latter but we at least know that they are or
were present in parts of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria,
South Australia and Western Australia. It is important to note
that they are unknown in the northern Kimberley region, northern
North Australia and the Cape York Peninsula, the three main
northern peninsulas of the continent, in all of which regions ordi-
nary boomerangs are also lacking. Both types were also unknown
in Tasmania, a fact which indicates that boomerangs do not have
as great an antiquity as throwing-sticks.
Origin of Boomerangs
On the basis of Australian evidence, there seems to be no good
Teason for believing that boomerangs are not indigenous to Aus-
tralia. In this instance the geographical distribution of boomer-
angs as a class appears to be illuminating. As we have already
seen, both ordinary and returning boomerangs are lacking in the
extensive area comprising the three northern peninsulas. It is
presumable that they have never been used in the northern Kim-
berley district and northern North Australia, for we find the ordi-
nary varieties diffusing into these areas at the present time. The
crucial place where boomerangs seem to be unknown, but where we
would expect to find some traces of them if they had been brought
into Australia from a foreign source, is the Cape York Peninsula.
For this region, Koth informs us that they are lacking north of the
Palmer and Mitchell rivers . 2 That boomerangs have diffused
northward into the southern part of the peninsula is not known
from specific data although such a movement may be indicated by
the gradual change from fine weapons to cruder ones as one goes
north. A northward diffusion is also suggested by linguistic evi-
dence. The Gunanni tribe, for instance, who inhabit the area
between the Mitchell and Statten rivers, possess two kinds of boom-
erangs, one light in weight, the other heavy, and one very much
more curved than the other, to which they apply the same term,
their only term for boomerang, we-cingalci . 3 Southward from this
a Roth, p. 201.
Ibid., p. 203.
168
D. 8. Davidson
area specific names seem to be applied to these two types, whereas
the word we-ngal, or a cognate, is used as the generic term for
boomerang. 4 These facts also seem to support a theory that there
has been a derivation from within the continent.
In a culture where throwing-sticks undoubtedly have been in use
for a great period of time, we do not have to look far for a possible
and most reasonable ultimate basis from which boomerangs could
have been derived. It should not be implied that there was neces-
sarily a direct change from a throwing-stick to a boomerang by the
reduction in height of the cross-section and the giving of a greater
curvature, although such could have been and may have been the
case. It seems much more reasonable to suppose that such a change,
if it actually happened, was gradual and that considerable time
mav have elapsed before what we recognize as a boomerang was
produced.
There are many specimens with forms which appear to be
transitional between throwing-sticks and boomerangs. These, by
themselves, however, should not be considered as conclusive evidence
of a historical change from the former to the latter. They might
very well represent a movement in the opposite order. However,
if it could be determined that these specimens actually represent
transitional forms, we could be quite certain that throwing-sticks
were the earlier in view of their greater antiquity as indicated by
their appearance in Tasmania, and by their simplicity in likeness to
natural forms. It is possible that these modern specimens which
appear to be transitional may represent combinations of features
recently borrowed from each type.
In respect to returning boomerangs, there seems to be no reason
for doubting, on the basis of Australian evidence, that they have
been derived from ordinary boomerangs somewhere in Australia.
They, too, are not only lacking in the same northern peninsulas,
toward which boomerangs are now diffusing, but their origin can be
explained most logically in the similar non-returning boomerangs
with which they are always associated.
In just what locality such a transformation may have been first
recognized and accepted as a new culture trait cannot be indicated,
nor can we point to any particular variety of boomerang as the one
i Ibid., p. 201. For the lower Tully river; compare also icongala, the
word for boomerang at ilackay, Smyth, I, p. 329.
Is the Boomerang Oriental ?
169
most likely to have been the forebear. As we have already stated,
the differences between the returning and non-returning types are
often most difficult to distinguish. Thus any one of a number of
the latter could have been the basis from which the former could
have developed, probably it would seem, by the accidental realiza-
tion that certain characteristics in form, the rounding and twisting,
were responsible for a peculiar flight.
So-called Boomerangs of Other Areas
If we are correct in postulating an Australian origin for both
ordinary and returning boomerangs, it follows as reasonable, in
view of the lack of their appearance in the northern peninsulas of
the continent, the only regions known to have received direct
cultural influences from other areas, and the only areas where
Australians could have influenced other peoples , 5 that they have
not diffused from Australia to any other region, but have been
isolated in Australia since the time of their inception. If such is
the case, no theory of diffusion is necessary to explain those weapons
found in other parts of the world which are similar in general form
and which have been implied by some to be historically related to
Australian boomerangs.
Xow sticks for striking or for use as missiles are certainly very
simple weapons. It should not be considered as surprising, there-
fore, to find them in use on the various continents in contemporary
times or in different periods of the past. There are many instances
of such appearances in each of which, as a rule, the specimens as
a group differ in detail from those of other regions. Some are
plain, straight or curved sticks, round in cross-section, and corre-
spond in a general way with what we have termed for Australia,
throwing-sticks. Others with one flat and one convex surface, or
two flat surfaces in some instances, and showing a longitudinal
curve, come under the general definition we have given to boome-
rangs. Still others, with various knobs or swollen features for
heads, can be placed, in terms of our grouping, into the category of
throwing-clubs. JSo distinctions, however, have been made by many
5 The Australians are poor navigators and could not have carried
cultural influences to other peoples. Their watercraft were most advanced
in those regions where boomerangs are lacking. See my paper, “ The
Chronology of Australian Watercraft.”
170
D. S. Davidson
writers, and, as a result, we find cases in which the terms throwing-
stick, boomerang, and throwing-club have been used differently or
applied without discrimination to various types of missile-sticks.
It is not to be supposed that a solution to the problems involved can
be reached merely by the adoption of a uniform terminology, for
general terms, themselves, are subject to misuse and lead to mis-
understanding when applied to classes of variable objects which,
although showing resemblances, are not necessarily related to each
other.
In respect to Australia we have arbitrarily chosen our definitions
for the convenience of classifying in a broad, general way, certain
weapons found on that continent. It must not be assumed, there-
fore, merely because these general definitions are found to be
applicable to certain objects in other parts of the world, that a
historical relationship between them is indicated. By such a
method, it would be possible by a change in definition to infer
relationship in the most questionable and unwarranted instances.
It is a reasonable assumption, I should say, to expect to find varia-
tion and basic similarity among widely spread traits which are
historically related. It is also just as reasonable, in my estimation,
to find that simple traits, discovered independently and found suited
to the same general purposes, show some similarity as well as
differences. It is possible, therefore, to confuse matters by inter-
preting historically different traits as variants of a common generic
form, on the one hand, or by implying variants as being historically
unrelated, on the other. The first misuse seems to be characteristic
of the extreme diffusionists ; the second, of the extreme evolutionists.
Such misuses, however, are difficult to avoid as the result of the
many similarities and the many mutations commonly met with in
culture.
The term, throwing-club, as we have defined it, seems to be a
satisfactory' one for general world use. Off hand, it does not imply
any particular minor feature which might restrict its meaning to
some peculiar form. The term throwing-stick would also seem to
qualify as a general term if we were to amend our definition to
include all simple stick forms not classifiable as throwing-clubs,
regardless of the shapes of their cross-sections. With such a defi-
nition, boomerangs would be classified as a special type of throwing-
stick. The term boomerang is the only one which leads to mis-
Is the Boomerang Oriental?
m
understanding when used for weapons other than Australian, for it
generally implies characteristics which, as we have seen, are falla-
cious. 8 It would be desirable to restrict its use only to the Aus-
tralian weapons, although, as a result of a lack of any other adequate
term to designate a curved, flattened throwing-stick, it seems
likely that its use will be continued in other areas. There can be
no basic objection to such a practice if only it will be realized that
these various objects do not become returners merely because they
have been termed boomerangs and that they are not necessarily re-
lated to other objects given the same appellation in other parts of
the world. So deep-rooted is the myth that all boomerangs are
returners that it is generally found that most writers who apply
the term to weapons of other peoples hasten to add that the weapons
they refer to are not returners. With such an ambiguous meaning
associated with the word it is not surprising to find great confusion
in discussions concerning “ boomerangs.”
“ Boomerangs ” have been reported for many regions of the
world. In the New Hebrides, for example. Rivers described as a
“boomerang ” a rather stout object, apparently oval in cross-section
and about 16 inches in length, which has a longitudinal curve and
two unequal and tapering arms terminating in squared off ends.
It is not a weapon for it is used only in sport and is stated not to
return. In one method of throwing, it is hurled against the
ground, whence it revolves in the air and deflects to one side or the
other. It is found only along the northern part of the western
coast of Espiritu Santo and is called in the native dialect tiokhi
or tioki. It is said to have some connection with the kava cere-
mony and was regarded by Rivers as historically related to the Aus-
tralian boomerang and as having been introduced by his famous
“ kava people.”
That the tiokhi is different in form and in function from Aus-
tralian boomerangs seems clear. However, it is important to note
that in the Boulia-Gloncurry district of Queensland there is a not
dissimilar object called a kundi-kundi which is used in a similar
» The word boomerang, of course, is Australian. Morris gives the words
burramanga and boomori, wind, from the Hunter River of northeastern
New South Wales. Apparently it was only in the dialects of this general
region that these words or variants were found. Boomerang is now com-
monly employed in eastern Australia among both whites and aborigines
who "speak English. In Western Australia the word kylie is preferred.
172
D. S. Davidson
manner. It is a thick, rounded stick, 18 to 20 inches in length,
pointed at both ends and strongly bent. It is used for sport by
being held in the hand with the convex side forward and with the
forefinger pressed along the concave side, in contrast to the Austra-
lian method of throwing boomerangs by holding them with their
concave side forward, and hurled against a log or branch lying on
the ground. It strikes the obstacle and flies into the air revolving
as it goes on a more or less horizontal plane. Eoth regards the
kundi-kundi as a stage in the evolution of the boomerang from a
nulla-nulla or a straight throwing-stick, a conclusion which may or
may not be the ease. Indeed this object of sport may have no his-
torical relationship with boomerangs which it resembles only in a
most general way. It is possible that the kundi-kundi and the
kiokhi are related, although such a relationship is by no means
either obvious nor certain in view of their simple form and func-
tion, as well as the fact that they seem to be separated by a dis-
tance of over 2,000 miles. However, if it were possible to estab-
lish a historical relationship between these two objects of sport,
it would not follow that either one of them is necessarily an Aus-
tralian boomerang. Nor would the proof that the kiokhi was
derived from Australia alter the conclusion, based on Australian
evidence, that the boomerang, itself, has not diffused from
Australia.
For the Celebes, there is a report of “ knieformig gekriimmte
bumerangahnliche Wurfholtzer zur Vogeljagd ” 7 which function-
ally is similar to both Australian ordinary boomerangs and throw-
ing-sticks. There seems to be no reason for supposing that there
may be any direct historical relationship between this weapon and
any of the weapons found in Australia.
The well known flat, curved weapon in the American South-
west, usually spoken of as a rabbit-stick, is also occasionally re-
ferred to as a “ boomerang ” or is spoken of as being “ boomerang-
shaped.” These terms may be misleading to some, although it
seems to be realized generally that these sticks will not return and
have only the most superficial resemblances with the Australian
weapons. Incidentally rabbit-sticks have a considerable antiquity
in this general region for they have been excavated from the Yal
Yerde County cave deposits in Texas. 8 In more recent times, they
■ Buschan, p. SGI. s p earce an( j Jackson, p. 44.
Is the Boomerang Oriental?
173
have diffused westward to California where their northernmost
appearance is among the Gabrielmo. 9
The most confusing use of the term boomerang in the writer’s
opinion is that of the German scholars, Graebner, Schmidt and
Koppers, who apply it in its usual Australian sense, by which the
ordinary and not the returning boomerang is implied, to certain
missile weapons of the Sudan and Upper Nile, including throwing-
knives of iron. 10 Indeed, the word is employed by them as the
distinguishing term for a Kulturkreis, their Boomerang or Xegri-
tish Kulturkreis, regardless of the differences between the missile-
sticks of the various regions. Although the professors of the
Kulturkreis theory postulate a historical relationship between
these various weapons and thus consider their use of the term justi-
fied, such a connection is neither obvious nor, in the writer’s esti-
mation, reasonably demonstrated. The so-called “ boomerangs ” of
the Upper Nile and the Sudan 11 show only the most generalized
and superficial resemblances with Australian boomerangs. They
are often sharply bent 43° to 90° at the fore-end and seem to be
characterized by swollen foreparts. In certain respects, therefore,
these African weapons are nearer what we have called throwing-
clubs, or even throwing-sticks, than what we have termed boomer-
angs. However, there seems to be no advantage in equivocating
over the use of terminology, for just the application of the same
term to these various differing weapons will not demonstrate their
historical unit}’, although it is easy for one to become susceptible
to such a belief if the term is used in such a loose fashion, nor
will the use of different terms prove the appearances to be the
results of independent development.
These examples of the wide and varied application of the word
“boomerang” to non-returning weapons or objects used in sport
are sufficient to demonstrate how innocently or purposefully mis-
* Kroeber, pp. 467, 632.
10 See Graebner, Schmidt and Koppers. For the throwing-knives, see
Thomas.
11 Until comparative studies commenced, all writers seem to have spoken
of these weapons as throwing-sticks. See Schurtz, p. 316, for ancient
Egypt and the Sudan; Baker, Sir Samuel, Kile Tributaries of Abyssinia,
p. 511 (cited by Lane Fox, 1869, p. 430) ; Knight, pp. 13-14, for Abyssinia
as far as Lake Chad, also the Upper Kile; Brough Smyth, I, pp, 321 et
seq., for the Es-sellem of the desert, similar to the ancient Egyptian
curved sticks.
174
D. S. Davidson
leading such remarks may be. It is not difficult to understand,
therefore, that in other cases where it has been assumed or claimed
that the returning propensity is associated with certain weapons,
the confusion is still greater for, as we have already said, the
boomerang myth is so deep-rooted that there is a natural tendency
to assume that any weapon called “ boomerang ” will return, and
vice versa, that any weapon believed to be a returner must be a
“ boomerang.”
India
The question of the ability of weapons other than Australian to
return, however, is a moot one. Many claims have been made, but
none seems to have been proved, and most have been discredited.
There appears to be only one recent statement that returning
weapons are found elsewhere. In this instance, in the article on
Boomerangs in the 14th Edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica,
the statement is made that in India there is a “ boomerang-shaped
instrument which can be made to return.” This information tells
us very little, for we are not informed whether these instruments
were made intentionally to return or were found by the experi-
mentation of Europeans to have such properties of flight. The
statement is of interest, however, as a continuum of one of the
early claims of Lane I ox, on which, judging from the references
listed, it is based.
Since the middle of the nineteenth century Europeans seem to
have been trying to make certain Indian weapons return. As early
as 1869, Lane Fox illustrated certain curved, pointed weapons,
elliptical in cross-section, which in general respects are compara-
ble with some of the Australian ordinary boomerangs. Aside from
the fact that the\ are heavier and thicker than the latter, have
surfaces equally convex, and apices at the extremities of the convex
sides, they are stated definitely not to return. 12 The crudest are
said to come from Goojerat and an “ improved form ” from
Madras. The latter is a short, curved weapon with a knob handle.
Subsequently in 18 >2 the same writer, in attempting to show a
historical relationship between the Australian and Indian weapons,
remarked : The Dravidian boomerang does not return like the
Australian weapon. The return flight is not a matter of such
primary importance as to constitute a generic difference, if I may
1S Lane Fox, 1869, p. 430 and PI. 20.
Is the Boomerang Oriental?
175
use the expression ; the utility of the return flight has been greatly
exaggerated; it is owing simply to the comparative thinness and
lightness of the Australian weapon (sic).” 13 In 1877, however,
Lane Fox after considerable experimentation announced : “ An im-
proved form of this weapon is used by the Marawars of Madura,
and some of these are much thinner than the boomerangs of the
Kolis, and in practice I find them to fly with a return flight like
the Australian boomerang.” 14 This is the statement that seems
to be the basis for the recent claims, referred to above, that a
“ boomerang-shaped instrument ” in India can be made to return.
It seems quite certain that Lane Fox was not making the implica-
tion that returning “ boomerangs ” were in use but merely stating
that by experimentation with certain specimens he was able to
obtain what he regarded as a flight comparable with the flights
made by Australian returning boomerangs. However, he does not
define what he means by the term “return flight.” At last, in
1883, he seems to have accepted as a fact that these weapons as a
class and in their aboriginal use were neither intended to return
nor capable of being made to return. 15
The most recent detailed attention to these Indian weapons is a
study by Hornell. 16 He finds them to be in use among Maravans
and Kalians, Yellelas, Yalliyans, Nadars (Shanars) and Muham-
madans in Madura, Ramnad and parts of Tanjore, Tinnevelly
and Pudukkottai. In some cases, they were used for hunting
hares, deer or partridges; in others, they were considered as
weapons of war. At the present time many have ceremonial value
and are made of ivory or steel. In no case did Hornell find any
evidence of return flight.
It would seem, therefore, that there is no good evidence for
believing that returning “ boomerangs ” were ever used by the
native peoples of India, although it is possible that some of their
weapons, taken individually, can be made to exhibit some semblance
of a return flight, using the term in its broadest possible sense.
Such a possibility in itself is not remarkable, however, for as
13 Lane Fox, 1872, p. 323.
11 Lane Fox, 1877, p. 30, quoted by H. Balfour in a footnote in Hor-
nell, p. 338.
« Lane Fox, 1883, p. 461. See also Buschan, p. 538.
18 Hornell, pp. 336-340.
176
D. S. Davidson
Brough Smyth has commented, it is quite possible “to get some
sort of return flight, if a crooked stick be thrown in the air.” 17
Egypt
Claims have also been made that the hunting stick of the ancient
Egyptians, apparently a property from pre-dynastic times to at
least the 18th Dynasty, was a returning “boomerang.” Again it
is Lane Fox who is responsible for the confusion in respect to these
objects. He practised with a fac simile of a weapon in the British
Museum and stated in 1872 that he “succeeded in at last obtain-
ing a slight return of flight,” and added: “In fact it flies better
than many Australian boomerangs for they vary considerably in
size, weight and form, and many of them will not return when
thrown (sic).” 18 Here again we are left in doubt as to what in
his estimation constitutes a “ return flight.” A few years later, in
1883. he appears to have become convinced that the Egyptian
sticks were not returners. At this time he postulated the theory
that the returning type is found only in Australia but that it repre-
sents an evolution from the ordinary boomerang which had dif-
fused from an unknown point of origin to Egypt, India and Aus-
tralia. The ordinary boomerang is regarded as a development
from the throwing-stick, which in turn is supposed by him to have
had its beginning in the throwing-club. Both of the latter in his
opinion, for which he gives no substantiating evidence, diffused
successively from their respective points of origin to their present
distributions. 19
The belief that Egyptian hunting missile-sticks had the return-
ing character of the Australian returning boomerang, has also been
held by no less an Egyptologist than Erman who in 1894 wrote:
“ The throwing stick is a simple but powerful weapon — a small
thin piece of wood, bent in a peculiar way; when thrown, it hits
the mark with great strength, then returns (sic) in a graceful
curve and falls at the feet of the marksman.” 20 That Erman’s
17 Brouah Smyth. I. p. 322. 18 Lane Fox, 1872, p. 323.
18 Lane Fox. 1883. pp. 461 et seq. Whatever may have been the his-
torical development in other regions, We have already stated that throw-
ing-sticks appear to be older than throwing-elubs in Australia and that
both seem to have a non-Australian origin. Whether the one was devel-
oped from the other we have no way of telling at present.
30 Erman, 1894, p. 236.
Is the Boomerang Oriental?
177
statements are based entirely upon fancy seems clear, for aside
from the facts, in so far as I have been able to ascertain, that there
are no references in the Egyptian writings to a returning pro-
pensity of this weapon, and that no one has ever succeeded in “ at
last obtaining ” more than a “ slight ” return with a fac simile,
it is well known that a returning boomerang will not return if it
strikes anything in its course. It is interesting and important to
note that Erman deleted the above passage in his revised edition
in 1923. 21
The supposition that the ancient Egyptian stick was a returner
has been carried further by Nies who goes so far as to postulate a
unitary origin for it and the returning boomerang found in mod-
ern Australia. 22 He illustrates a specimen from Gurneh (XVIII
Dynasty or earlier) but admits: “It does not seem to have the
elevation of 2° to 3°, which Thomas states are necessary to give the
weapon its peculiar flight, but then one will find that these char-
acteristics are also wanting in some of the boomerangs from Aus-
tralia in the American Museum of Natural History in New York
(sic).” 23 Here again we find the confused idea that all Australian
boomerangs are of the returning type. Xies quotes a Mr. Van
Shrum, described as an expert maker and thrower of “boomer-
angs,” who had an engagement at the New York Hippodrome at
the time, as saying that the Egyptian specimen in question was
particularly suited for throwing at birds, and that it would return,
if thrown high, even though it lacked the skew !
Two interesting examples of Egyptian throw-sticks from the
tomb of Tut-ankh-Amen were recently figured by Hornell. It is
quite apparent that they have only superficial resemblances with
either the Indian or the Australian weapons. It also seems quite
plain, in view of their peculiar form, that they could not be return-
ers. Hornell believes that there may be some historical connection
between them and the weapons of India.
Had it not been for the intense interest of Lane Fox in compar-
ing primitive weapons and especially in attempting to find return-
ing boomerangs in various parts of the world, it seems doubtful
whether the claim that Egyptian throw-sticks could return would
22 Xies, p. 26.
21 Erman, 1923, p. 264.
23 Ibid., pp. 28-29. The reference to Thomas is taken from the Encyclope-
dia Britannica, 11th edition, article on Boomerangs.
178
D. S. Davidson
ever have been seriously made. These weapons had been described
in detail by such earlier writers as Wilkinson who stated quite
definitely that they did not have the peculiarity of return flight
characteristic of the Australian returning boomerang. 24
The present attitude of all modern Egyptologists, at least I know
of no views to the contrary, is that there is no evidence for believ-
ing that the Egyptian hunting stick returned in flight. 25 That the
use of the term “ boomerang,” however, is still confusing to some
is well illustrated by Hall (1930) who explicitly describes the
Egyptian weapon as a throw-stick and says it was “ not a boomer-
ang, since it did not return in its flight.” 26
Babylonia
Attempts to ascribe a “ returning boomerang ” to ancient Baby-
lonia have been made by USTies who would trace the Assyrian sign
gespu to what in Proto-Elamite he regards as a modified picto-
graph of a “ boomerang.”
Barton, however, as he admits, regards this sign as having its
origin in a bow. 27 Nies goes still further, and, without archaeo-
logical data or other evidence, adduces here “the object in the
hand of Eannatum, the sickle-like weapons on the shoulders of
Ishtar that appear on seals, and the weapon of Bamman on the
boundary stones.” 28
Three Syrian throw-sticks have been figured by Petrie. There
appear to be some differences between them and those of Egypt,
although so many varieties have been unearthed in the latter region
that it is impossible to compare them as a group. 29 None gives the
impression that it could have the properties of a returning weapon.
34 Wilkinson, p. 325, f. n. 3. This is a revised edition of his earlier work.
25 An opinion kindly given by Mr. Battiseombe Gunn, formerly Curator
of the Egyptian Section of the Museum of the University of Pennsylvania.
28 Hall. p. 116.
27 Barton, p. 34.
24 Xies, p. 32. gespu is said to mean throw, east, strike, be in violent
motion, down, destroy, finish, end. also turn, return, turn aside, separate,
decide, portion, a bow, prostrate, overthrow, fall, especially naparshudu,
to flee, deviate, i. e. to bend in running.
28 Petrie, PI. 43. 3 Syrian. 1 Libyan and 3 Egyptian; PI. 69, 6 various
Egyptian.
Is the Boomerang Oriental?
179
Europe
It has also been suggested, indeed as early as 1838, 30 that a
returning weapon was known in early Europe. Isidor, bishop of
Seville, who wrote at the end of the sixth and the beginning of the
seventh centuries is reported to have said that the cateia would
return if thrown by a skillful hand. 31 This weapon, therefore, has
been regarded by some as a “ returning boomerang.” 32 However,
what is known of the weapons of this period from specimens and
literature offers no support to such a contention. 33 A mythologi-
cal background for the concept of a returning weapon may be
found in Thor’s hammer.
Conclusions
On the basis of the foregoing discussion, it thus appears that
there are no satisfactory indications that returning weapons were
known outside of Australia. Certainly good evidence of their
presence in other regions has not been presented and, as we have
seen, most claims have been withdrawn by the ones who made them.
However, even though it could be shown that returning weapons of
boomerang-shape were known in other areas, it would not follow
necessarily that they were historically related to Australian boomer-
angs. The facts of distribution and the directions of diffusion
within Australia must be accounted for in any attempt to link the
Australian returning toy boomerangs with the weapons of other
peoples.
The conclusions that returning boomerangs are indigenous to
Australia must not be considered as prime facie evidence that ordi-
nary boomerangs must also be an Australian development, although,
as we have seen, the facts from Australia indicate that such is
equally the case. It is quite true that there aTe weapons which
resemble them vaguelv in many other parts of the world but this
does not seem remarkable when it is realized that we are concerned
with very simple objects used to satisfy the most fundamental wants
30 See Brough Smyth. I. pp. 323 et seq., for a discussion of a paper by
Samuel Ferguson. " On the Antiquity of the Kiliee or Boomerang," read
before the Royal Irish Academy in 1838.
31 Lane Fox. 1809, p. 430.
32 See Walker, 1901. p. 338. citing Schiaparelli.
33 Brough Smyth, op. cit.
180
D. S. Davidson
of man. Certainly it does not seem reasonable to deny that many
peoples might observe that curved sticks are satisfactory weapons,
nor does it seem logical to suppose that different peoples, independ-
ent of one another, may not have changed the natural round cross-
section of a stick to other shapes which vary according to the local-
ity from oval or biconvex to rectangular. These remarks should
not be construed to mean that all the appearances of these weapons
represent independent developments in the regions where they are
now found. There may be some direct relationship between some of
the Asiatic and African forms but more data than just the observa-
tion that these weapons have generalized similarities in form and
function should be presented before such a claim can be considered
valid.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Barton, G. A., The Origin and Development of Babylonian Writing, Pt.
II. Xo. 69, Beitrage zur Assyriologie IX, Leipzig. 1913.
Buschan. G., Illustrierte Yolkerkunde, Part II, Stuttgart. 1923.
Davidson. D. S., “Australian Spear Traits and Their Derivations, Journal
of the Polynesian Society, Vol. 43, Nos. 2-3. 1934.
. “ Chronology of Australian Watercraft,” ibid., Vol. 44, 1935.
. “ Australian Throwing-sticks, Throwing-clubs and Boomerangs.”
MS.
Krman. A.. Life in Ancient Egypt, London (translated by Tirard, H. M.).
' Aegypten und Aegyptisches Leben im Altertum, Tubingen. 1923.
Graebner, F., Kulturkreise und Kulturschichten in Ozeanien,” Zeitschrift
fur Ethnologie, Bd. XXXVII. 1905.
Hall, H. R.. .4 General Introductory Guide to the Egyptian Collections in
the British Museum, London. 1930.
Hornell, J.. South Indian Blow-guns, Boomerangs and Crossbows,”
Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, Vol. 54. 1924.
Knight. E. H., A Study of the Savage Weapons,” Smithsonian Annual
Report for 1879, Washington. 1880.
Kroeber, A. L., Handbook of the Indians of California,” Bulletin 78,
Bureau of American Ethnology. 1925.
Lane Fox (Pitt Rivers), A.. “Primitive Warfare, Sect. II,” Journal of
the Royal Service Institute. Vol. 12, Xo. 51. 1869.
. Address, “ British Association.” Mature, 146. Vol. 6. 1872.
— -. On the Egyptian Boomerang and its Affinities,” Journal of the
Royal Anthropological Institute. Vol. 12. 1883.
Morris. E. E.. Dictionary of Australian Words, London. 1898.
Xies. J. B.. “The Boomerang in Ancient Babylonia,” American Anthro-
pologist, Vol. 16. 1914.
Is the Boomerang Oriental?
181
Pearce, J. E., and Jackson, A. T., “ A Prehistoric Rock Shelter in Val
Verde County, Texas,” University of Texas Anthropological Series,
Vol. I, No. 3. 1933.
Petrie, Sir W. M., Tools and Weapons (British School of Archaeology in
Egypt), London. 1917.
Rivers, W. H. R., “ The Boomerang in the New Hebrides,” Man, Vol. 15,
59. 1915.
Roth, W. E., Ethnological Studies, London. 1887.
, “ North Queensland Ethnography,” Bulletins 1 ff ., Brisbane and
Sidney. 1901 ff.
Schmidt, W., und Koppers, W., Gesellschaft und Wirtschaft der Volker,
Vol. Ill (Der Menseh aller Zeiten), Regensburg. 1924.
Schurtz, H., Die Urgeschichte der Kultur, Leipzig. 1900.
Smyth, R. Brough, The Aborigines of Victoria, 2 Vols., Melbourne. 1879.
Thomas, E. S., “The African Throwing Knife,” Journal of the Royal
Anthropological Institute, Vol. 55. 1925.
Walker, G. T., “ Boomerangs,” Nature, 64, London. 1901.
Wilkinson, Sir J. G., The Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians
(New Edition, Revised and corrected by S. Birch), London. 1878.
THE EARLY SIGNIFICANCE OF CHINESE MIRRORS
Ardelia Ripley Hall
Museum of Fine Alts, Boston
When mieeors were first used in China we do not know, nor
from whence came the Chinese type of mirror of polished metal
with a knob in the center of the back pierced for a ribbon or cord,
although there are those who have proposed an origin outside of
China which is by no means conclusive. In the 21st year of Duke
Chuang of Lu, the traditional date of which is 673 b. c., “ a queen’s
large girdle with a mirror in it,” is mentioned in the Tso Chuan. 1
The seventh century is probably two or three centuries before the
period of any mirror which has yet been found. The earliest
mirror bearing a dated inscription is of the year a. d. 6. Within
recent years many mirrors have come to light which are un-
doubtedly earlier than the inscribed mirrors and date from the late
Chou and Ch‘in dynasties. About a year ago Sueji IJmehara, one
of the greatest authorities on ancient bronzes, has described five
square mirrors which he attributes to the Ch‘in dynasty. 2 The
more usual type is round and many early examples are already
well-known. 3 Lighter and thinner than later mirrors, they have
a delicate fluted knob and flat mirroring surface. They bear highly
formalized ami decorative designs and display a mastery of tech-
nique taken over from the casting of bronze vessels. Such mirrors
as these, among the earliest now known, can not be the first
products of the craft.
Going still farther back, to a time before the Chou dynasty, when
reflection was known only by means of the natural mirror of a
quiet pool, reflection was already used in a splendid figure, of how
the character of a ruler was imaged in the people of his state, just
1 Tso Cliuan-. Legge, Chinese Classics, vol. V, p. 101.
2 Sueji Lmehara, “ On some recently discovered square mirrors with
open-work design of birds and beasts,” Kokka, No. 505, Dec., 1932.
3 K. Tomita. " Chinese bronze mirrors of the second centurv B. c..”
Museum of Fine Arts. Boston. Bulletin, June, 1931, pp. 36-39.’ Oscar
Karlbeck. ‘'Notes on some early Chinese bronze mirrors,” China Journal
of Science and Arts. -Jan.. 1926. pp. 3-9: “The provenience of some early
mirrors,' Bulletin. The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm,
No. 2. 1930. pp. 204-207. Otto Kiimmel, “ Neun chinesisehe Spiegel,”
Ostasiatischc Zeitsehrift. N. F. 6. 1930, pp. 170-176.
182
Chinese Mirrors
183
as his face was reflected in quiet water. This comparison is found
in an ancient proverb , 4 “ The men of old have a saying, ‘ Let not
men in water look for their reflection ; let them to the people look
for their reflection.’ ” To this simple admonition was added the
further connotation that when the tyranny of a sovereign is reflected
in the injuries and hardships which he visits upon his subjects.
Heaven will revoke the divine appointment by which he reigns,
following the belief that there existed a reciprocal influence
between Heaven and the people.
By observing the mirror of the people one might thus learn of
the disposition of Heaven. For in the ethical code of the Confucian
canon, one’s fate was irrevocably dependent upon one’s character
and acts. The fall of the Yin dynasty, or any other dynasty for
that matter, was believed to be the just retribution for evil, the
fate a tyrant brought upon himself. The collapse of the Yin was
a mirror for the rulers and princes of the Chou dynasty, in which
they might read their own destiny if they did not take warning,
as is said in the Shu Ching,' 5 “ Kow the Yin have lost the appoint-
ment of Heaven. Now should we look to their reflection, seriously,
for the regulation of our affairs.” And again in the Shih Ching, 6
it is repeated,
" When the Yin had not lost the multitudes,
They were equal (on Earth) to Shang Ti (in Heaven) ;
Look now as in a mirror at Yin.
For the great appointment (of Heaven) is not easy to retain.”
The metaphor of the people who reflect the character and conduct
of their sovereign, is thus extended to include the reflection of the
will and sanction of Heaven, and the revelation of his destiny to a
prince. As is said in the Shill Chi, 7 “I have heard that in the
mirror of water one looks at one’s face; in the mirror of men one
knows whether one is fortunate or unfortunate.” For others the
mirror of a former reign is a warning, foreshadowing the future.
And in a final step all history becomes a mirror, and was commonly
used in the titles of historical works like the T'ung chien , s
* Shu Ching: Legge, Chinese Classics, vol. III. part II. pp. 408-410.
5 Shu Ching, loe. cit.
e Shih Ching: Legge, loc. cit., vol. IV, p. 431.
7 Ssu-ma Ch'ien, Shih Chi. V9 (Ts‘ai Chai).
8 jfj J|| ^ Ssu-ma Kuang, fn j|| Hi' ^ t un P chien is
popularly known as |f| Tung chien, “Universal history” or “Mirror
of History.”
184
Ardelia Ripley Hall
The reflection of the sky as the reflection of Heaven is a basic
analog}- for another famous comparison : that of the mind and the
mirror which we find in the well-known phrase of Chuang Tzu’s. 9
“ The mind of the sage perfectly calm (like untroubled water) is
like a mirror which reflects Heaven and earth and all beings.”
The comparison between tranquillity and reflection as spiritual
vision, is carried over to a similar association between brilliance
and reflection. The bright surface of polished bronze bore a sem-
blance to the sun, moon, and stars, which by their shining mani-
fested the intelligence of Heaven. In the words of the Odes,
“ 0 sun, 0 moon, which enlighten this lower earth,” 10
and,
“ 0 bright and high Heaven,
Who enlightenest and rulest this lower world ” 11
or again,
“ Great Heaven is intelligent.
And is with you in all your sayings ;
Great Heaven is intelligent,
And is with you in your wanderings and indulgences.” 12
The Duke Huan, in 711 b. c., is described as having, “ The sun,
and moon, and stars represented on his banners ; — these to illus-
trate the brightness of his intelligence.” 13 So the mirror in turn
became a symbol of the intelligence of Heaven and the sages.
The analog}- between the purity of water, unclouded by any silt,
and the purity of mind free from worldliness, equally essential to
the clear image in the water and the clear vision of a sage, 14 is
likewise carried over to reflection in bronze, in a parallel figure of
the brilliance of the mirror undimmed by dust. 15 On several Han
mirrors there is a long inscription, “ Purity of mind is reflected
in the mirror; the bright light is patterned after the brightness
• Chuang Tzu, bk. XIII, Legge, The texts of Taoism, S. B. E., vol. 39,
pp. 331; cf. also pp. 225 and 266.
10 Shih Ching, Legge, Chinese Classics, vol. IV, p. 44.
11 Shih Ching, Legge, loc. cit., vol. IV, p. 363.
11 Shih Ching, Legge, loc. cit., vol. IV, p. 503 ff.
1S Tso Chuan, Legge, loc. cit., vol. V, p. 40.
14 Chuang Tzu, Legge, The texts of Taoism, S. B. E., vol. 39 pp 310
and 330.
15 Chuang Tzu, loc. cit., vol. 39, pp. 226, 227.
Chinese Mirrors
185
of the sun and moon.” 16 Again and again an inscription will end,
“As brilliant as the sun and moon,” as an invocation to the
all-encompassing intelligence of Heaven.
Together with this figurative association of the mirror with the
sun and moon, there was what must have seemed like a practical
demonstration, an actual proof of some connection between them,
in that with a mirror one might draw “ bright fire ” from the sun,
and “ bright water ” from the moon. 17 At present no one questions
the use of the mirror as a means by which fire might be drawn
from the sun, but as a means to obtain water, this has long been
doubted. The Shuo Wen refers to a basin for this purpose.
Granet 18 speaking of chien would make a distinction between a
mirror and a utensil to obtain water, “ Le terme kien designe le
miroir metallique que la Heine portait a la ceinture. On nomme
du meme mot ^instrument qui servait a tirer 1’eau de la Lune.”
Whereas a bronze mirror would serve as well as any other metal
object upon which the dew might collect, particularly, when in
the Chfin and early Han one finds mirrors having a back with a
high edge. The obverse side could not have been used, for it was
either flat or convex, and the moisture would have run off. Another
obvious difference between a mirror for fire and a mirror for dew
would necessarily be one of size. Even the smallest mirrors, some
only two inches across would serve to light a fire, but a greater
surface would be needed for the collection of dew. There is in the
Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, a beautiful mirror with appro-
priate decoration of clouds and dragons which is nine and a half
inches in diameter, and the back with a high edge is almost a half
inch deep. 19 It is not impossible that an early mirror such as this
one might have been used to gather dew.
These uses, while suggestive of some mysterious connection
between mirrors and the sun and moon, undoubtedly appeared as
natural phenomena without magic or wizardry, for the moon was
believed to be made of water as the sun is made of fire. This was
,a mi fit % Sen-oku Sei-sho, Collection of ancient bronzes of Baron
Sumitomo (l'JZi ). pi. 2-7. English text, part II (by Harada
Yoshito), pp. 6, T.
17 Chou li; Biot. Le Tcheou li, vol. II, pp. 194-381. Li Chi; Legge,
Li Ki, S. B. E„ vol. 27, p. 435.
18 Granet, Danses et Legendes de la Chine ancienne, p. 514.
18 M. F. A. 31. 2, D. .238, Th. .008.
186
Ardelia Ripley Hall
an obvious truth to Wang Cheung , 30 when in disproving mythical
beliefs, he says, that if there were a crow in the sun it would burn
in the fire, and if the hare were in the moon it would drown in the
water. Nor can this usage be described as exclusively sacrificial,
for any blaze was kindled in this way. A mirror to get fire, and a
borer as well, were customarily worn attached to the girdle by the
“ sons ” and “ sons’ wives,” who rose and dressed at cock-crow . 21
The dew was valued for its purity, an aid to that inner purity by
which the Taoist achieved longevity and immortality. This celestial
commodity was so ardently sought after in the Han dynasty, that
the moisture collecting on any metal object would have proven
insufficient, especially, when those who rose at dawn found all the
vegetation hanging heavy with dew. The mirror was then probably
displaced in practical use. The late Han mirrors, unlike those of
the Ch‘in and early Han, do not lend themselves to this purpose.
Han mirrors had other merits, along with their obvious use as a
hand-mirror and the very efficient way in which they mirrored the
face, for by this time most mirrors were convex, reducing the
size of the reflection so that within a smaller circumference one’s
face is seen in excellent proportion. They were then worn for
more than convenience, by men and women alike. They had
assumed an ulterior purpose and new designs. In wearing a
mirror, it was believed one might thus ensure numerous benefits.
The mirror, a symbol which revealed the sanctions of Heaven,
as displayed in its roundness; as a symbol of the intelligence of
Heaven, as displayed in its shining; as the medium by which fire
was drawn from the sun and water from the moon ; all these asso-
ciations lent to the mirror a mystical validity, and in the Han
dynasty it became a talisman, a supernatural agent of the sun,
moon, and stars, which were believed to control the destiny of man.
The decoration of the Han mirror represents those celestial
influences which were invoked. Linked with current Taoist beliefs,
and especially with the cosmogony of that dynasty, the mirrors bear
astrological symbols, such as the symbolic animals : the tiger, the
dragon, the red bird, and the Sombre Warrior, representing the
heavenly regions of the Quadrant; the deities of longevity and
immortality, and immortalized men; the stellar divinities, such as
,0 £ % Wan ? Ch'ung, Liin Heng, chap. XX, A. Forke, Liin-
King, Philosophical essays of Wang Ch‘ung, pp. 268, 2G9.
31 Li Chi: Legge, Li Ki, S. B. E., vol. 27, pp. 449, 450.
Chinese Mirrors
187
the Five Emperors who resided in the constellations; the genii,
the winged chariots, other celestial animals and birds, accompany-
ing them. The nipples or round protuberances, the Chinese inter-
pret as constellations. In these mirrors one has a true talisman.
By these signs and figures the cosmic forces were propitiated, and
through their benevolent influence it was believed that one might
acquire wealth, prosperity, and peace, advancement to high state
position, many descendants, protection for one’s parents and chil-
dren, a long life, continued happiness, the avoidance of all ills,
general good fortune, and the immortality of Hsi Wang Mu and
Tung Wang Fu.
Only after the Han dynasty was the mirror itself invested with
magical power and freighted with weird uses. They hinge on the
belief that the mirror has in itself an occult power. On a Han
dynasty mirror, the figure of Huang Ti, the Yellow Emperor, is
represented on the back of a mirror, and the inscription around
the edge states that “ Huang Ti wards away evil.” But later, the
mirror itself was believed to have the power to ward off all evil
influences, to reflect what is invisible to the naked eye, and also to
reveal the unknown.
In a consideration of the early significance of Chinese mirrors,
these superstitions may be ignored. I have only mentioned them
here because they have so befogged the understanding of the use
and purpose of mirrors. Eichard Wilhelm has stated erroneously 22
that mirrors from the Chfin and Han dynasty were chiefly employed
for purposes of magic, and that behind their practical use, which
(he wrongly believes) dates as far back as the Thing and Sung
times, there persisted for a long time the semi-magical background
of the wizard’s mirror. It seems hard to believe that any mirror
should be regarded as all magic and no vanity, yet again de Tizac
says , 23 “ Le miroir, ou le disque metallique que nous appelons
improprement miroir, est, a l’origine, l’un des objects dont l’usagc
rituel est le plus accuse.”
Soulie de Mourant 24 who, while uninformed when he says that
no mirror is authentically dated and that in dating mirrors in the
Han dynasty we are attributing fine peices to a still barbaric age( !)
expresses the general bewilderment, when he writes, “ Whether
22 Richard Wilhelm, A short history of Chinese civilization, p. 42.
23 H. d’Ardenne de Tizac, L’art chinoise classique, p. 210.
24 George Soulie de Mourant, A history of Chinese art, pp. 113, 1 14.
188
Ardelia Ripley Hall
these objects were used simply for mirrors is a question still under
discussion. M. d’Ardenne de Tizac quotes the opinion of those
who gave them a ritual use. But what use? The fact is brought
forward in our day that they were magic utensils.” Instead of
calling a mirror a magic utensil, it would be more illuminating
to call it a protector against evil, such as demons and sickness, a
disc for divination like a crystal gazer’s globe, a thought and crime
detector, a precursor of X-rav or a light-emitting object, after
one story or another of wonder-working which has appeared as a
dramatization in the popular mind of the earlier concepts when
they were half-forgotten.
Yetts , 25 as well as Siren , 26 have given credence to the burial of
mirrors in great numbers, for the purpose of lighting the grave.
This is a late superstition, based on de Groot’s 27 description of a
custom in Amoy, and an account he quotes from a book 28 written
in the early fourteenth century.
In the Han tombs excavated at the Chinese settlement at Lo-
lang 29 in Korea, many mirrors have been found similar to those
in China at the time. Only a few were found in each grave. They
were placed there along with the pottery, the toilet boxes, the
weapons, and other personal belongings. One, for example, was
found by the Tokyo Imperial University expedition , 30 with a long
silk sash still attached to the knob by a narrow ribbon. It was lying
in its own tray in a round covered toilet-box of lacquer, above a
lower compartment fitted with smaller boxes for the comb, hair
ornaments, jewelry, the powder and cosmetics, of the dead woman.
25 P. Yetts, Catalogue of the George Eumorfopoulos Collection, vol. II,
p. 30.
29 Osvald Siren, Ilistoire des arts anciens de la Chine, vol. II, Addenda,
p. 100.
27 J. J. M. de Groot, The religious system of China, vol. I, p. 93; vol. II,
p. 399.
W . 1 ' Chou Hi, ^ nji ^j| . Kuei hsin tsa shih, Miscellaneous
accounts about carious subjects.
28 Cf. the reports of the Government General of Chosen, particularly
!® J}- M- Sekino Tadashi ' ■£ H M $ # %\\ fg Koscki chosa toku-
bitsu hokoku. Report of investigations and excavations of historic interest
and ruins in Korea and its vicinity, 1919. Supplement No. 1, p. 30
(diagram) ; ft m m ft u mehara Sueji. |g KankyO no
kenkyu, Chinese and ■ Japanese mirrors, pp. 226-7.
30 Y'oshito Harada. Lo-lang , a report on the excavation of Wang Usii's
tomb in the Lo-lang ” province, an ancient Chinese colony in Korea, plates
LXXXV XCYI, XXXII, pp. 32-34.
Chinese Mirrors
189
This toilet-box was placed in the grave with the same natural
and human motivation that the belongings of the Empress Yin
were treasured in her tomb, as it is recounted in the T‘ung chien , 31
“ In A. d. 74, the Emperor Ming saw his mother, the Empress Yin
in a dream. He awoke so saddened that he was not able to sleep
again. The new day being a fast day, he went directly with his
retinue to visit her tomb. The trees about the tomb were covered
with the dew of good augury. The Emperor had the officers gather
the dew. The offerings having been completed while he rested,
he had brought out before him all the possessions of his mother
treasured in her tomb; the mirrors in which she had mirrored her
face and her toilet articles among other things. He was moved to
tears and all the courtiers wept.”
The burial of personal possessions along with food and drink
was essentially the fulfilment of the desire to provide, for the long
future, those things which had been needed and prized in life,
especially objects such as a mirror, and food such as peaches and
jujubes, which were believed to ensure immortality.
There need be no question that the Chinese mirror was always
used as a toilet mirror, and as a talisman it was worn even in the
hope that it might be so used in the hereafter. The utility of the
early mirror is not to be denied. Upon its function its original
significance depends. The mirror had entrapped reflection, that
before had only been seen moving capriciously across the surface
of water. As the sky and passing clouds, and all the firmament
is reflected on a quiet sea, so the Earth bears the image of Heaven.
And in the Weltanschauung of the Chou dynasty the earthly order
was believed to reflect the heavenly order. The political metaphors
of the people reflecting the sanctions of Heaven, reflecting the
character and destiny of their ruler, are but extensions of the world
concept. This symbolism of reflection was embodied in the mirror.
Wisdom attained through reflection or contemplation was regarded
as perfect and universal receptivity. The shining bronze typified
the supreme intelligence of Heaven — manifested in the shining
of the sun, moon, and stars. Its validity as a cosmic symbol was
proven by drawing the fire from the sun and water from the moon.
With Taoist astromaney, it was a celestial agent of supernatural
potency. The mirror was in turn an emblem and a talisman of
Heaven. It became synonymous with history, and a symbol of
wisdom and purity.
31 T'ung chien , chap. 45, pp. 15 a, b. Weiger, Textes historiques, p. 702.
THE CONDITIONAL SALE INTO SLAYEEY OF
FREE-BORN DAUGHTERS IN NHZI AND
THE LAW OF EX. 21 : 7-11 1 2
I. Mendelsohn
Columbia University
The kecently published Nuzi documents have brought to light
new material on slavery as it existed in the Euphrates Yalley in
the middle of the second millenium b. c. The Nuzian slave institu-
tion merits a special study inasmuch as its methods of adoption,
sale, and treatment of slaves differ from the methods employed in
the neighboring Babylonian, Assyrian, and Hittite lands. A com-
parative study of the Nuzian slave practice with those of the last
named countries should prove highly interesting. This paper is
limited to a single phase of the Nuzian slave institution, namely,
the sale into slavery of young girls by their parents with the explicit
condition that they be married off by their purchaser, a practice of
which, curiously enough, there is no trace in Babylonia and Assyria,
but which has its exact parallel in an archaic law of the earliest
Hebrew slave legislation.
1 The following abbreviations have been used in this paper :
AASOR, The Annual of the American School of Oriental Research.
BE, The Babylonian Exped. of the University of Pennsylvania.
Ser. A: Cuneiform texts.
HSS \ , Chiera, Excavations at Nuzi, v. I = Harvard Semitic Series,
v. V.
HSS XX, Pfeiffer, Excavations at Nuzi, v. II — Harvard Semitic Series,
v. IX.
JAOS,
KB,
N I, II, III,
RA,
Journal of the American Oriental Society.
Keilinschriftliche BiUiothek.
Chiera, Joint Exped. with the Iraq Museum at Nuzi, Ameri-
can School of Oriental Research. Publications of the
Baghdad School, vols. I. II, III.
Revue d’Assyriologie et d'Archeologie Orientale.
2 For a discussion of the very interesting methods of sale and adoption
in Nuzi see: Gadd, Tablets from Kirkuk, RA xxiii (1926); Koschaker,
Aeue Kcilschriftliche Rechtsurk unden aus der el-Amarna-Zeit. Abh. der
Philol.-Hist, Klasse der Saechs. Akad. der Wissenschaften, Band xxxix,
no. 5 (1928) ; Speiser, Aeic Kirkuk Documents Relating to Family Laws,
AASOR, x (1928-29) and Saarisalo, New Kirkuk Documents Relating to
Slavery, Studia Orientalia, v. 3 (1934).
190
Slavery in Nuzi
191
We have known so far (with the exception of the archaic and the
half understood law of Ex. 21: 7-11) of two methods by which a
parent could dispose of his daughter in case of economic pressure :
(1) he could have her adopted and receive in return a “gift”
from the adopter/ or (2) he could sell her outright into uncon-
ditional slavery. In addition to these two methods the Xuzians
employed a third scheme by which certain sales into slavery of
young free-born girls assumed a semblance of legitimate marriage,
i. e., conditional sales whereby the giving into marriage of the slave
girl was made obligatory upon her purchaser.
Examples of clauses containing the marriage conditions in the
Kuzian sale documents :
1. Preamble : statement of the character of the sale.
1. Tup-pi ma,rtuti(pl. ti) u kdl-la-tu ,-ti ■ ■ -a-[na mar\iuti{pl.
ii) u hal-la-tUi-ti^i) . . . i-din .* “ Tablet of daughtership
and brideship . . . into daughtership and brideship (his
daughter) . . .he sold”.
2. Conditions of sale: (a) to be married to her master, (b) to be
married to her master’s son, (c) to be sold as a wife to a free-
3 The scarcity of slaves in early Babylonia which gave rise on the one
hand to a traffic in foreign slaves (see Ungnad. Babylonische Briefe aus
der Zeit der Hammurapi-Dynastie, nos. 123 and 162; Schorr, Vrkunden
des altbabylonischen Zivil- und Prozcssechts, no. 105; Peiser, KB iv, p.
44, no. 3 and also N II, nos. 179 and 195), and on the other hand to the
promulgation of drastic laws against kidnaping of minors and adults (Code
of Hammurabi, § 14), and against the export of native-born slaves {ibid..
§280), gave rise also to an extensive and profitable trade in free-born
children, commonly called adoption. Although in rare late cases the cause
for adoption was a desire on the part of the adoptive parent to leave some-
one to care for his soul after his death (see Clay. BE xiv. no. 40 and Gadd,
op. cit., no. 9), the underlying motive for adoption w-as purely economic.
It was a business transaction made and agreed upon by the parties con-
cerned for their mutual economic advantage. The father or mother received
a compensation in the form of a gift and the adoptive parent acquired a
reliable, trustworthy, and cheap laborer who could be “ disinherited ” at
the slightest pretext and often even sold into slavery. In course of time
adoption outlived its economic usefulness and its practice was discontinued.
‘S I. no. 50; see also ibid., no. 26; HSS IX. no. 145; Chiera-Speiser,
JAOS 47 (1927). no. 5. Some of the documents have only martutu in the
preamble while others have only kallatutu. For the former see HSS IX.
no. 119; Speiser, AASOR X. nos. 26, 27 and Gadd. op. cit., no. 35; for the
latter see Chiera-Speiser, op. cit.. no. 4 and Speiser, op. cit., no. 31.
192
I. Mendelsohn
born man outside of the family, (d) not to be given as a wife
to a slave, and (e) to be given as a wife to the owner’s slave.
(a) U sum-ma ha-ds-hu T a-na ds-su-ta i-ta-ha-az-zu. “Or,
if he so desires, T (the purchaser of the girl) may take
her as a wife ”. 5
(b) [Hcu\-si-ih su-u a-na [ds-s]u-ti a-na mari-su i-na-an-din . B
“ If she wishes, she may give (the bought girl) as a
wife to her son
(c) Ha-si-ih su-u it [a]-na as-su-ti i-na bd-bi \i-na~\-an-din-
na-si- \ma ] “If she wishes, she may sell her (the
bought girl) as a wife ‘ in the gate ’
(d) A-na assuti(pl. ti) a-na 1 ardi la inaddin. “As a wife
to a slave she shall not be given ”. 6 * 8
(e) U T a-na ds-su-ti a-na A a-na ardi-su iddin u sum-ma
A im-tu it T Sh a-na sa-ni-im-ma ardi-su na-din. 9
“And T (the purchaser) as a wife to A, his slave,
he has given (her) ; and if A dies then T shall give
Sh (the bought girl) to another one of his slaves”.
3. Penalty for breach of contract.
3. Ma-nu-um-e sa i-na beri-su-nu ibatt'atu(tu) I ma-na haspu
I, ma-na h uras u u-ma-al la. 10 “Whoever among them
withdraws, shall supplv one mina of silver and one mina
of gold”.
The principle underlying such a sale was to insure the sold girl
with a marital status and thereby prevent her master from ex-
ploiting her as a prostitute, the inevitable fate of the female slave
6 Chiera-Speiser, op. tit., no. 5. The conditions of the sale are: A sells
his daughter W into daughtership and brideship to T who may either take
her as a wife for himself or give her in marriage to one of his slaves.
* HSS IX, no. 145. The conditions of the sale are: The woman G sells
her daughter H into daughtership and brideship to the female slave fji.
who may sell her as a wife (1) to whomever she wishes, (2) to one of her
sons. (3) in ‘the gate’, but (4) cannot give her in marriage to a slave.
' HSS IX. no. 145: see also Gadd, op. tit., no. 35; Speiser, op. tit., nos.
26, 30. 31; Contenau, Contrats et Letters d’Assyrie et de Babylonie, no. 7.
s Speiser, op. tit., no. 26. The conditions of the sale are : The purchaser
may sell the girl as a wife to whomever he wishes, but cannot give her in
marriage to a slave; see note 6.
9 X I. no. 26.
10 Ibid., no. 78, etc.
Slavery in Nuzi
193
at all times and in all countries where slavery existed . 11 The con-
dition that the slave girl be married was fundamental. Thus a
father takes the precaution to safeguard for his daughter this
marital status by inserting in the sale document a special clause
to the effect that should her slave-husband die that her master
immediately give her as a wife to another one of his slaves . 12 The
status of the respective husband was of secondary importance.
This depended primarily on the bargaining power of the seller.
If the sum needed was small and not urgent,, a father might succeed
in having his sold daughter married off to a free man, otherwise
he had to be satisfied with a slave as son-in-law.
The contracts fail to give the status of the girl when sold to a
free man. On the other hand when the agreement calls for a union
with a slave, the status of the girl and that of her future children
are stated: they remain slaves, the property of their owner. The
status of the girl is given in the following clause : u a-ti-i Sh bal-
ta-at u i-na biti sa T la u-us-si, i:i ‘' so long as Sh (the girl) lives,
she shall not leave the house of T (the master who gave her in
11 Prostitution as a means of earning a livelihood by unmarried and
divorced women was a recognized and established institution in the earlv
Semitic world. Though not a very honorable profession, no disgrace attached
to the person practicing it. The professional prostitute was a free-born
independent woman and the law protected her economic position and regu-
lated her social status in the class pyramid of early Babylonia. In an
adoption document, dated in the reign of Rim-Sin, the adopted free-born
girl was to be made a prostitute (KAR-LIL) and maintain by her earning
her foster father (Poebel, BE IV, part ii, no. 4); in another document,
dated in the reign of Kurigalzu, in the Kassite period, the adopted girl
was either to be given in marriage or made a prostitute, but could not be
reduced to slavery (Clay, BE XIV, no. 40: 6-10). The prostitute could
marry a free man and assume the right of the first or legal wife (cf.
Barton, An Important Social La ir of Ancient Babylonia, AJSL 37, p. 65).
In course of time the social and legal status of the prostitute underwent
a radical change. The Assyrian Code treated her socially on a par with
the slave and legally as half free. Like the unmarried temple prostitute
(qadtitu) she had to appear in public with her face unveiled and her head
uncovered as a sign that she belonged to an inferior and despised social
class. The degradation of the prostitute to the level of the slave in Assyria
and neo-Babylonia was due to the fact that the majority of the prostitutes
at that time were slaves hired out by their masters to individuals and
public houses.
12 See note 9.
12 N I, no. 26; see also Chiera-Speiser, op. eit., no. 4.
194
I. Mendelsohn
marriage to one of his slaves)”. The status of her children is given
in the following clause : sa us-tu lib-bi sa IF u-uz-zu^ii a-na T lu-u
am,tutu(pl. tu) u lu-u, wardutu(pl. tu), “all the offspring that
come out of W (the girl) become T’s (the owner’s) female or male
slaves. 14
The earliest Hebrew slave legislation does not deal with slavery
proper although the terms T->’ and nCK are employed to designate
the persons spoken of in those laws. The first part of the legisla-
tion (Ex. 21: 2-6) concerns the defaulting debtor (or thief) who
was sold in order to work off his debts. The second part {ibid.,
w. 1-11) deals with the free-born young girl who was sold into
slavery by her father under the explicit condition that she be taken
as a concubine by her master. These are two distinct phases of
semi-slavery, the first of which (vv. 2-6) has its parallel, in prin-
ciple, in the Code of Hammurabi (§ 117), and the second (w.
7-11) can now be traced back to the earlier slave institution of the
non-Semitic bfuzians.
The Hebrew law regarding conditional sales of free-born young
girls is a fragment of an original series of enactments dealing with
all cases of conditional sales. The law of Ex. 21 : 7-11 reads as
follows :
Preamble : “ If a man sells his daughter to be an HON, she shall
not go out as the (the defaulting debtors) do”.
Condition of sale : “ If her master dislikes her, although he has
appointed her for himself, then shall he let her be redeemed; to sell
her to a stranger 1o he shall have no power for he has dealt deceit-
fully with her. And if he has appointed her for his son, he shall
treat her in the manner of daughters. If he takes to himself
another (wife), he shall not diminish her food, clothing and
conjugal rights ”.
"Ibid., no. 5: see also X II, no. 120. [The technical terms in question
are properly abstracts collections, as may be seen from the supplement
-tu. in spite of the plural sign. E. A. S.]
15 The injunction ■ ■ - '"I which, translated literally,
means to an alien people he shall have no power to sell her,” makes no
sense. Targum Onkolos renders ‘"l by “ to another man ”,
and Rashi renders it by “to another”. These renderings fit the
context admirably. According to the Xuzian practice the purchaser could
sell the girl to a stranger r in the gate ’) if the marriage clause explicitly
allowed him to do so. otherwise it constituted a breach of contract.
Slavery in Nuzi
195
Penalty for breach of contract : “ If he does not do these three
(things) to her, then she shall go out free without compensation ”.
The preamble is utterly perplexing. V. 7b is not the sequel to
v. 7a. It would be absurd to expect a master to marry every female
in his household. The later Deuteronomic law (15 : 12) knows no
such compulsion : both male and female defaulting debtors are to
be released in the seventh year. The integrity of the preamble
can be maintained, however, if we take the term HON to convey
here the same meaning as the Nuzian kallatu “ bride ”, i. e., the
law contemplates a brideship sale. The girl was sold by her father
on the condition that she be married to her master and hence
“ she shall not go out like the C"Oy do ”. The body of the law
(vv. 8-11) deals with a single case of a brideship transaction: the
sale of a free-born young girl on the condition that her master, not
an outsider, marry her. In ease he refuses to do so, after she had
reached puberty, on the ground that she does not find favor in his
eyes, he may take recourse to one of the following : ( 1 ) he may let
her be redeemed, (2) he may give her as wife to one of his sons, or
(3) he may retain her as a concubine. In the latter case he must
supply her with the necessities of life. Should he refuse, however,
to comply with these conditions, then, as a penalty for breach of
contract, “ she goes out free without compensation ”.
Like the Xuzian documents, the law of Ex. gives only the status
of those girls who were to be married to slaves. Their status and
that of their children is given in v. 4 of the same chapter : “ If his
master gives him (the defaulting debtor) a wife and she bears him
sons or daughters, the woman 18 and her children remain the
property of her master and he goes out alone
1,1 The interpretation of Kashi (see also Benziger, Archaeol.. p. 160. note)
that by "N was meant a Canaanitish woman is not convincing for in that
case “XN or “HCC would have been employed. The law refers to a free-born
woman who was sold on the condition that she be given as a wife to a slave,
in which case both she and her children remain in perpetual slavery. See
above, note 14.
6
BRIEF COMMUNICATIONS
Palladas and Jewish Reflection upon the Beginnings of Man
Meditation upon the pit whence we were digged has moved many
men to bitter utterances about the generation of human kind and
the miserable beginnings of physical life ; but for harsh sarcasm it
would not be easy to match a certain epigram 1 of Palladas of Alex-
andria ( ft . 400 a. d.). Because of its stark brutality scholars are
readier to refer to it than to quote it; 2 but since a bit of history
appears to be involved in its language, the words must be set
before us.
'Ac fj.vi'in'qv, dvOponrt, Xdflgs, 6 7rar?Jp at rt ttoiwv
tairupt V, Travtrr] rijs ptyaXo<f>poarvviys.
aXX‘ o IIAarwr aoi rvtpov ovtip<i>a ( twv eve<f>v<Ttv,
d&dvarov at Xtyoiv, Ka! </>vtov ovpaviov.
Ik mjXov yiy ocas" t'l tfipovtls jueya ; tovto ptv ovrios
tip dv r is, Koapwv irXd.ap.aTi atpvOTtpw.
ti Si A oyov tpjTtis toc dXi)6iv6v, £§ aKoXdarov
X ayvtiat ytyovas, Kai piapas pariSos.
A fairly close rendering is as follows :
Bethink thee, man, what way thy father wrought
In getting thee, and set thy pride at naught.
Perchance by Plato’s dreamings thou’rt beguiled.
Who called thee deathless, and high heaven’s child.
Thou'rt made from clay ? Vain boast ! That tale was told
To set thy spawning in a daintier mould.
Wouldst know thy source, and idle prating stop?
From lust unbridled and a filthy drop.
As far as I know, it has not been observed that the last words are
closely paralleled by a passage in Pirqe Aboth ( Sayings of the
Fathers) 3.1: ‘Aqahiah ben Mahalaleel said, “Consider three
1 Anthol. Pal. s. 45.
2 E. g., J. W. Alackail. Select Epigrams of the Greek Anthology, p. 330;
T. E. Glover, Life and Letters in the Fourth Century, p. 319, n. 1.
196
Brief Communications
197
things, and thou wilt not come into the hands of transgression.
Know whence thou earnest ; and whither thou art going ; and before
whom thou art about to give account and reckoning. Know whence
thou earnest : from a fetid drop ; and whither thou art going : to
worm and maggot ; and before whom thou art about to give account
and reckoning : before the King of the Kings of Kings, the Holy
One, blessed is He ! ” 3 ‘Aqabiah, who is thought to have lived in
the first century of our era, speaks here in sad seriousness, with
none of the acrid raillery that pervades the epigram of Palladas ;
yet the coincidence in one point of language is none the less strik-
ing. One can trace the idea further back in Jewish thought; thus
Job, x. 9-11,
Kemember, I beseech thee, that thou hast fashioned me as clay ;
And will thou bring me to dust again ?
Hast thou not poured me out as milk
And curdled me like cheese?
Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh
And knit me together with bones and sinews.
The language of Job in v. 10, though veiled by comparisons, is
scarcely less frank than that of Palladas, 4 but there is no bitter
abasement conveyed by it. As Gray remarks, 5 “ The poet has no
thought of the sinfulness of the flesh ; the human body is the noble
workmanship of God; behind the human functions of procreation
and gestation lies the activity of God.”
A striking passage in the Wisdom of Solomon next deserves
attention (vii. 1-2).
Eijlu jjiev Kayw OvqTO’i ccros urratnv.
/cat yip/tvovs airdyovos 7rpci)TOirA.aorov ■
Kal iv KOiXla pqTpbs iyXvtprjv cr'apE
BtKapqvtaly ypoyw, rraytii iv aipari
Ik tnrippxxTOS avSpos Kal r/Sovrjs vttvm <TVVtX6ol^o^^r] , ;.
The resemblance of V. 2, utaytU iv at pan Ik oiripparos dvSpos
Kal rjSovfjs vttvo) tn'vtXOovcrqs. to the last distich of Palladas’ verses
is very close, particularly when it is remembered that iVvos is an
* Sayings of the Jewish Fathers, translated by C. Taylor.
4 Cf. the note on v. 10 in Jastrow, The Book of Job.
s FTote on the passage in Driver and Gray, Job (International Critical
Commentary).
198
Brief Communications
euphemism for otvowtm; but here also, as in Job, the spirit of the
passage is widely different. In these and the following verses (3-8)
the wise King is represented as looking back to the humble begin-
nings from which, like all other mortals, he is sprung, and medi-
tating upon the power of wisdom to lift the soul above the clay.
The words of the first two verses are spoken in humility, not in
bitterness.
There is still another passage which may be compared with those
already cited, a prayer to Helios in the great Paris magical papyrus
(P. IV, 640-651 Preisendanz) : Kvpit, x al P e > /*eyoAo8wo/ie, pt^yay-
XoKpaTbip, fiaaiXtv, ptyiart 6td>v, "HA.it, 6 Kvpios tov civpavov Kal rijs yjjs,
Ott 6twv, layvci aov ?) -nvoii], layya aov i) Suva/ats, Kvpit • lav aoi
ayyeiAov pt rip ptyiarm dto>, roi at ytvvrjoavTi Kal -rroirjaavTi, otl dvOponr os,
iyii 6 Seiva rijs Stii'a, ytvoptvos Ik dvynj'i varipas ty/s Stlva Kal i\d)pos
cnrep/xaTiKOv Kal, ayptpov tovtov Wo aov pcdrayyevvrj&tvTO^, Ik roaovriov
pvpiaSwv ajraOavaTtadtU tv Tavrrj Tp <Lpa Kara SoKrjaiv 6tov, Wep/JaAAdvTios
dyadov. TrpoaKvvrjaal at dEioi Kal Setrai Kara SvvapLV dvdponrlvrjv. The
passage has been discussed by Dieterich ( Mithrasliturgie , pp. 67-8),
who sees in it a prayer to the Sun to be the petitioner’s messenger
to Mithra, whom he wishes to adore ; he has been purified and now
seeks to be made immortal. Although Dieterich does not mention
this point, it seems possible that the words dv6pu> 71 -os kt\. are a con-
fession of earthy origin, a formula of self-abasement necessary to
be uttered before rebirth. 6 Somewhat similar is the idea in the
same papyrus 51 1 -523, tirti ptWio KarOTTTtvtiv ar/ptpov rois dOavaroLS
oppaai, OvrjTos ytvvTjdtU tK Oviynjs vartpas, /Je/JeAnio/revos Wo Kpdro vs
pa/a\oSwapov /cat Sepias x eL P°s dtfafldpTOv, dOavaro) irvtvpaTi tov a&xvaTOV
A«uva Kai StairoT-rjv twv Trvpivtov EiadrjULiTDv, ayi ois ayiaoWis ayiaapaaiv
ayios, ktA..
In view of Solomon’s reputation as a master of magic, it may be
suggested that the above cited passage from the Wisdom, where he
describes his progress from earthy beginnings to divine knowledge,
has had some influence upon the formulas used by adepts in the art.
As for Palladas, it would be going too far to hold that the lan-
guage of his famous poem must have been derived from Jewish lore.
Such gloomy reflections have doubtless occurred independently to
thousands of men, and the tongues of the ribald have never been
* It may be noted that in later use. particularly in medical writers,
tends to denote a foul or diseased humour of the body.
Brief Communications
199
withheld from the theme. Still, Alexandria was the melting-pot of
religions as it was the melting-pot of races; and it is not impossible
that Palladas knew something of Hebrew wisdom literature. He
may at least have turned to his own purposes a phrase learned
through Jewish channels and derived either from The Wisdom of
Solomon or from Pirqe Aboth, which was read in the synagogues
at certain seasons of the year from early times . 7
It can hardly be said that the character of the Jewish sources
fully accounts for the quasi-liturgieal use of the similar words in
the magical papyrus. There it could be more easily explained if
such language had occurred in some early penitential office. Yet
this is on the whole not very likely, because as a friendly critic 8
remarks, “ in liturgical texts the tendency is to think of man not
in terms of his individual physical origin, but rather in terms of
the original divinely created perfection which was his and which he
lost.” I must leave the question to those who are expert in litur-
giology. As far as I know, modern Jewish ritual has nothing so
plain-spoken. The formula of self-abasement in the evening service
of the Day of Atonement is much milder : “ Before I was formed I
was nothing worth, and now that I have been formed I am as though
I had not been formed. Dust am I in my life : how much more so
in my death,” etc.
It is not the purpose of this note to pursue at length the theme
of harshly-phrased contempt of the body and its origin. There are
examples of it in Marcus Aurelius (ii. 2, iii. 3, ix. 36), and certain
church writers use language reminiscent of Wisdom, as Theophilus
of Antioch (ad Autolycum i. 8, Migne, P. G. VI, 1037A), Zacha-
rias of Mitylene (Ammonias, P. G. LXXXV, 1044A), and doubt-
less many more. Indie religious philosophy sometimes recommended
meditation upon man's low origin in words as rude as those of Pal-
ladas; e.g. Institutes of Vishnu, Sacred Books of the East, VII,
p. 282.
Campbfxl Boxxer.
University of Michigan,
Ann Arbor.
7 Just how early is uncertain. The fact was attested by R. Amram b.
Sheshna in the ninth century; v. Encyclopaedia Judaica, s. v. Abot, col. 368.
8 A D. Nock, in a letter
200
Brief Communications
Vitae prophetarum
It is the purpose of this paper to draw attention to a Jewish book
of the late Hellenistic age known as the Vitae prophetarum which,
though thoroughly studied from the point of view of textual criti-
cism, 1 has not yet been investigated as a source of information on
the history of religion, especially Jewish religion at the time of
Christ. The book, though plainly of Jewish origin, has come down
to us enriched by several Christian interpolations, and has in most
versions been connected with the names of St. Epiphanius of
Salamis (4. cent. a. d.) and Dorotheus, Bishop of Tyre (end of
3. cent. a. n.). The book has been preserved in Greek, Armenian,
Syrian and Ethiopie as well as in Latin, where the most remark-
able, though not complete quotation is to be found in the Eistoria
scolastica of Petrus Comestor (12. cent.). 2 From here it found its
way into the vernaculars of the West as well as into the illustrations
of the Speculum humanae salvationis 3 (14. cent.). From many
points of view Comestor’s edition is better than even the best Greek
versions.
The book has undergone so many alteratious, that it proves to
be difficult to ascertain the age of its several component parts.
Tentatively, the first Christian interpolations may date to the 3rd-
4th centuries a. d. The Jewish nucleus must be considerably
earlier, as the maryrdom of Isaiah described in the Vitae prophe-
tarum is referred to in the Epistle to the Hebrews II: 37, and is
alluded to in the Gospel of St. John 6 : 37. Some of the most
important practices presupposed in the Vitae prophetarum, such as
the worshipping of prophets’ graves, excited the wrath of Jesus,
as is shown in Matth. 23 : 29 and 37.
From the point of view of history of art, it is one of the Christian
interpolations, preserved in its integrity only by Comestor, that first
arouses our interest. Here it is told how' Jeremiah educated the
Egyptians to worship the image of a virgin with child indicating,
1 Edited by Th. Schermann, Prophetarum, vitae fabulosae indices apos-
tolorumque domini, Leipzig: Teubner, 1907, and Proplieten- und Apostel-
legenden nebst Jiingerka talogen des Dorotheus in Texte und Untersuchungen,
Leipzig: 1907.
2 Edited by H. Vollmer, Eine deutsche Schulhibel des 15. Jahrhunderts :
Historic scolastica des Petrus Comestor in deutschem Auszug mit lateini-
schem Paralleltext, Berlin: 1925.
3 Lutz u. Perdrizet, Speculum humanae salvationis, ilublhausen : 1907.
Brief Communications
201
that a saviour born from a virgin would cause the fall of the
Egyptian gods. This may reflect the belief that the pictures of Isis
were the prototype of those of the Virgin Mary, a contention that
is supported by the similarity of the Coptic “ Maria lactans ” types
with the Isis of Hellenistic Egyptian art. The story is partly taken
from one of the sources of the Pseudo-Matthew, but has itself been
imitated in later literature. It reappears enlarged and fantastically
adorned in the so-called Religious controversy at the Sasanian
court , * a work of probably Syrian origin, in which another mother
goddess stands for the Egyptian Isis. In post-medieval Europe the
Jeremiah story served as a justification for the worship of “ black
madonnas ” which were regarded as pre-Christian . 5
As to the Jewish element of the book in question, it consists of
brief descriptions of birth and burial places of the prophets followed
by the stories of their peaceful or violent deaths, and by other
legends. Since the topographical indications seem to be always exact,
it follows that the main purpose of the book was topological : it was
a pilgrims’ guide, and as such it inaugurates the long chain of
pilgrim literature on Palestine. Prophet’s graves are still wor-
shipped in Palestine, Syria, and Mesopotamia, and occupy, by reason
of the functions ascribed to them, a place comparable to that of the
ancient Baalim . 6 They often constitute places of pilgrimage and
are described as such by modern travelers as well as by visitors of
the Middle Ages, who tell us also about the sacred trees and wells
connected with their cult. But such practices were already in vogue
in Sew Testament times. The Vitae prophetarum refer to two cases
of graves adorned with sacred trees (Obadiah and Jeremiah). In
another case they tell about the miracles expected by the pilgrims
at the site of the sanctuary (Jeremiah).
What is still more important, even the dying and resurrected
gods tend to hide behind the names of prophets. At the Siloam
canal the grave of Isiah was shown and the story told that the
prophet, when sawed to pieces under an oak tree, became the eponym
of the place. It was also believed that the prophet possessed the
* E. Bratke, Das sogenannte Religionsgesprach am Hofe der Sasaniden.
Leipzig: 1889.
6 Cf. the black madonna of Le Puy. J. Langlade. Le Puy et le Velay,
Paris: 1925. E. Llale, L’art religieux du 12. siecle, p. 2ST.
9 The most detailed description in S. J. Curtiss, Vrsemitische Religion,
Leipzig: 1903.
202
Brief Communications
power of alternately opening and closing the spring. The Talmud
likewise contains this legend, but here no statement of locality is
made and the modification introduced that the prophet is sawed
inside a tree. 7 Thus the prophet comes to resemble a spirit of
vegetation. It may be noted that in two Talmudic versions Isaiah
is enshrined in a cedar tree, the same tree, in which according to
the Egyptian Tale of two brothers 8 (2. Mill. b. c.) Bytis-Adonis
met his fate. Since both Bytis and Isaiah die when their tree is
sawed down, it may be safely inferred that Pseudo-Isaiah is merely
an aspect of Adonis. Beanimation or even resurrection have
probably been assumed, traces of which may be distinguished in the
so-called Ascension of Isaiah , 9 St. John compares Jesus with the
prophet who feeds the waters of Siloam (6:37).
But according to the Vitae prophetarum most of the ancient
prophets had to suffer a violent death, and this interpretation, in
a way characteristic for the Jewish Haggadah, is based upon
assumed indications in the canonical books. To cite an instance,
Comestor’s version of the life of Jeremiah contains a few supple-
mentary words, according to which the prophet suffered martyrdom
by his own free will. They can be authenticated by a comparison
with the Additional Words of Baruch. 10 Now this passage was based
on a misunderstanding of Jeremiah 43, 8, where the prophet is
said to have deposited stones before the Pharao’s palace. Thus
Jeremiah is seen providing the material for his stoning, thereby
setting an example of voluntary martyrdom.
All this bears, of course, largely on the questions of the life of
Jesus, his view of his own calling and of the growth of the tradition
about him. Two of the miracles related in the Vitae prophetarum
bear an unmistakable resemblance to corresponding passages in the
New Testament (the temptation of Christ and the feeding of the
oOOO). Jesus himself refers in his speeches to the worshipping of
the prophets grave (Matth. 23:29-37), to the martvrdom of his
prophetic forerunners (Matth. 23:29-37 and Luke 20:9-15) and
7 Talmud Tebamoth
Vienna : 1880.
A. Ermann, The Literature of the Ancient Egyptians. New York:
P. 150. Montet, Byblos et VEgypte, Paris: 1926. Pp. 65 and 288.
‘R. H. Charles, The Ascension of Isaiah, New York- 1919
10 I. R. Harris, The Text of the Words of Baruch, London: 1889.
49 b, Sanhedrin 10: 28 ea 37, Younger Persilcta,
1927.
Brief Communications
203
to his inevitable martyrdom as a result of being a prophet (Luke
13:33). These sayings are among the most authentic in the
Gospels and must not be confounded with certain of the later pre-
dictions of suffering. Closer investigation is desirable as to whether
dogmatic ideas regarding the death and assumption of prophets
could possibly have contributed to Jesus’ resolution of seeking his
death at Jerusalem. 11
Richard Berxheimer.
Bryn Mawr College.
11 A book, in wlinli I attempt to discuss these problems, is in the course
of preparation.
REVIEWS OF BOOKS
Publications of the Joint Expedition of the British Museum and
of the Museum of the University of Pennsylvania to Meso-
potamia. Ur Excavations. Vol. II. The Royal Cemetery.
A Eeport on the Predynastic and Sargonic Graves excavated
between 1926 and 1931. By C. L. Woolley, with chapters
by E. B. Burrows, Sir Arthur Keith, L. Legbain, D. H.
Penderleith. Text, pp. xx -f- 601, col. front., map, with 81
ill. in text. Plates 274, col. front. Published for the Trus-
tees of the two Museums by the aid of a grant from the Car-
negie Corporation of Xew York. 1934. $20.00.
An outstanding excavation has been crowned by an equally out-
standing publication. Mr. Woolley shows by this work that he
deserved the good luck of digging up so important a site. It was
no easy task to excavate an area honeycombed by nearly 2,000
tombs of most erratic stratification. When the first objects ap-
peared nobody could know the real character of the site. Woolley
is frank in admitting that some mistakes may have been made at
the beginning. But to read his account is to be convinced that
nobody could have done the work better. It is thrilling and instruc-
tive to follow his tale of how he excavated the shafts leading down
to the tombs, how he obtained entrance to them and extricated the
buried objects in a most punctilious and ingenious way. His
method of obser\ation cannot be surpassed. From slight imprints
in the soil he was able to reconstruct completely destroyed objects
such as wooden wheels or carvings. X ot even the faint traces of
a very fine muslin escaped his trained eye. The reconstructed
objects themseh es are the best proof of his competence. One must
appreciate the condition in which the lyres, the goats, and the
‘ standard/ were found to realize what work he has done. There
are nearly two hundred pages of lists, and the catalogue of objects
numbers 18212 entries! The careful drawings which show the
objects in situ should also be mentioned.
Although oolley’s preliminary reports were very detailed,
much new knowledge can be gathered from the publication. After
an introduction and a general survey of the cemetery we have a
204
Reviews of Books
205
description of the tombs with a full account of the excavation and
of the finds in each individual burial. A chapter on the dates
closes this descriptive part which comprises about a third of the
whole work. Next comes a systematic discussion of the results.
The chapters are: architectural materials and methods, dress and
personal ornaments, musical instruments, shell inlay and engrav-
ings, metals, inscribed materials, cylinder seals, beads, stone, wood-
work, pottery. A chapter on £ general results ’ is added, depict-
ing the glory of Sumerian civilization in an enthusiastic, perhaps a
little too enthusiastic, manner. The last third contains lists and
catalogues.
It would be impossible to give a summary of even the most im-
portant items; only a few can be mentioned. Woolley holds that
all earlier burials were made in regular graveyards located outside
the towns and that the custom to bury the dead under the floor
of the house, practiced from the time of the third dynasty of Ur
onward, was based on religious and not on economic grounds (cf.
Yeivin in the Second Preliminary Report upon the Excavations at
Tel Umar, pp. 33 f.). Timber centering and caissons were used in
building the vaults. A few tombs point to a rite in which a fire
was lighted in the tomb, partially burning the body. The stones
used must have been carried from a distance of some thirty miles.
Woolley claims that all architectural features are indigenous to
Mesopotamia, e. g., the vaults are to be derived from reed build-
ings, the columns originated in the use of palms for supports, and
so on. I would rather believe with Jordan and others that the
herringbone pattern made with plano-convex bricks, and the use
of stone came from elsewhere. Although reduced to fine powder,
three kinds of weaving could be observed in a tomb. The normal
position of pins was against the upper arm or shoulder so that
they must have been used to fasten cloaks. From the peculiar
arrangement of beads Woolley concludes that they were sewn on
jackets with sleeves. I am not certain that this conclusion is in-
escapable. If it is, it would be very noteworthy because the monu-
ments do not show such a garment. Only the bodice characteristic
of Ishtar figures from Hammurabi's time would furnish a parallel
(cf. W. Eeimpell. Gescliichte der Babylonischen und Assyrischen
Kleidung, Berlin 1921, p. GO). Sistra and pipes used as musi-
cal instruments have been found. Woolley identifies the animals of
206
Reviews of Boohs
the rein-ring and on the ‘ standard ’ not as mules, as some
scholars have done, but as onagers, the wild asses, an identifica-
tion which may fit the historical requirements best. A fragment
of iron is of meteoric origin. In regard to foreign relations, some
axe types point to Anatolia and a kind of bleached beads to India.
Woolley believes in connections between Sumer and Egypt and
holds that Egypt was on the borrowing end in most cases, an
assumption in which he is certainly right. Of very great im-
portance are the anthropological results presented by Sir Arthur
Keith. All the remains, those of Queen Shubad and Meskalamdug
included, belong to a < Proto- Arabic ’ race, which is identical with
that of the present Arabs in Iraq. Since, however, the total num-
ber of skeletons suitable for study was only nine, no conclusion
can be drawn as to the actual racial composition of the Sumerians
of that time; nevertheless, the early appearance of the Semites in
Mesopotamia and the great part which they had in the origin of
Mesopotamian civilization is now supported by the anthropological
material.
Two major problems have not been mentioned as yet. As the
title of the book shows, Woolley clings to his former opinion that
the tombs belong to royal persons, not to priests or priestesses sacri-
ficed in fertility rites, as many scholars have assumed, lately Frank-
fort and Speiser (Iraq I, p. 12, Antiquity, 1934, p. 451). The
strongest argument by which Woolley tries to Tefute his opponents
seems to me to be based on the sex of the persons buried. In
sacrifices we would expect either a male and a female body buried
together, or else bodies of the same sex, either male or female.
Actually, however, the tombs betray no such order.
The second problem concerns the dating. Woolley once more
defends his opinion that the ‘ Royal Cemetery ’ is earlier than the
First Dynasty of Ur and belongs to about 3500 to 3200 b. c. His
arguments are historical, stylistic, and stratigraphical. Let us
see whether they are absolutely conclusive. The historical reason
is that the means from the ‘ Royal Cemetery ’ do not occur in the
preserved lists of the kings and must, therefore, be earlier. This
argument would be valid only if the lists were absolutely com-
plete. Since such is not the case as regards the Kish list (p. 321)
the possibility exists that the few names from the cemeterv may
not have been included in our Ur list. Woolley finds the style of
Reviews of Boohs
207
the monuments from the B. C. earlier than that of the First
Dynasty. But his simple statement that the styles of the First
Dynasty and of TJrnanshe show degeneration, is far from being
a thorough analysis of the development of the Sumerian art, which
would be necessary to support an opinion not shared by other
scholars and differing from current ideas of normal developments.
His other argument that the tomb and house furnishings betray
the First Dynasty is not borne out by the finds from the E. C. Nor
is the evidence from seals in favor of the author’s views. To be sure,
Woolley denies that seals could be used in this way because the
arguments are based on purely subjective criteria of style. But,
I ask, is a sequence of pottery types not based on stylistic grounds
and, vice versa, is there no historical and stratigraphical evidence
for the dating of seals? (Cf. H. Frankfort. Tell Asmnr, Khafaje ,
and Ehorsabad, p. 40) ? Now, a seal like Nr. 11107, PI. 198,
dated by Woolley within the earlier part of the E. C., is in style and
contents absolutely identical with seals from the Sargonic period
(Pis. 214 ff.). Furthermore, it has an inscription in cuneiform
which, according to Burrows (pp. 314 ff.), must be later than
Lugalanda. There are many other seals ascribed by Woolley to
the later part of the B. C. which everyone who has worked with
seals would assign to the Accadian period. Seals Nrs. 13516 on
PI. 201 and 13574 on PI. 204, which Woolley also assigns to the
E. C., show the style of Lugalanda. Some Indian seals and beads
were found, according to Woolley, in the E. C., whereas the date
ascertained by stratigraphical evidence is Sargonic (H. Frankfort,
loc cit., pp. 47 ff., Annual Bibliography of Indian Archaeology for
1932, pp. 3 ff.). Are we to assume that the Indian civilisation was
stationary for nearly a millenium? Woolley’s dating goes against
all our ideas and long-tried methods. We could adopt it only
if his stratigraphical evidence were absolutely conelusive. Now
Woolley found a barren layer above the E. C. which provides a
terminus ante quern for it. A couple of Sargonic tombs were
dug through this layer, but all predynastie ones were below it.
In the same layer jar sealings of the first dynasty were found.
Woollev, therefore, places the tombs below this layer before the
first dvnastv. I accept all his stratigraphical facts, although his
plans and sections showing the stratification are too few to allow
a check-up of his assertions. But is his conclusion as to the date
208
Reviews of Boohs
unassailable? Were both the barren layer and its contents de-
posited at the same time, or were the seals found between the
floors of houses? The layer consists of rubbish brought from
elsewhere. There is no proof that this rubbish does not date from
earlier times. Since there were in it broken bricks it may have
come from a building long in ruins, and disturbed when the
foundations for a new building were laid deep in the ground.
Strong arguments compel us to accept this solution for which
numerous analogies can be found in the history of excavation.
My opinion, therefore, is that the B. C. extends over a very long
time beginning in the Early Dynastic Period and reaching into
the Accadian one, the barren layer originating in the latter period.
For absolute dates I refer to Albright’s elucidating remarks in the
American Journal of Archaeology, vol. 38, pp. 608 If. It goes
without saying that a lowering of the dating does not diminish in
the least the value of Woolley’s work and finds.
Valentin Heller.
Bryn Mawr College.
Die althebraische Lileratur und ilir hellenistisches Nachleben
(Erganzungsband zum Handbuch dcr Literaturwissenschaft).
By Johann Heiipel. Potsdam: Akademische Verlags-
gesellschaft Athenaion, 1930 [-34], Pp. 203, 6 plates (1
in color), 71 cuts. EM 15.30, bound EM 19.60.
This volume, bearing copyright date of 1930, but with a post-
script on p. 197 indicating its completion in December 1934, has
just come to hand. So much is to be said lest it appear that any
neglect of delay has been shown to this notable work in the columns
of the Journal. Technically it is a very handsome volume, of
about 12 x 19 inches format, printed on a superior heavy paper,
and adorned with a large number of illustrations, topographical
and archaeological, carefully placed, which give a welcome atmos-
phere of historical reality to the literary subject. The reviewer
greets the work with unstinted praise, both for the richness of its
contents and its method of arrangement, in which respects it stands
above many volumes of similar character. It is not an “ Introduc-
tion to the Literature ’ after the character of manv well known
authorities, in which book after book, or category after category
Reviews of Boolcs
209
(Pentateuch to Wisdom) is handled; it is not a history of the
books, themselves mostly artificial units, but a description of the
currents of the literature in their rise, development and varied
transformations. The first main part, pp. 24-101, treats of the
“ Porms ” of the Hebrew literature, to wit, (1) of Poesy; (2) of
the Saying ( Sprucli ), extending from the popular saw to the sen-
tentius proverb with its development as in the Wisdom literature;
and the “ word ” of the seer, the prohpet, the priest, the lawgiver ;
finally (3) of Prose, which ranges from saga and myth through
legend and tradition to historical writing. This arrangement is
original and suggestive. We have here a finely done analysis of
the several literary species as illustrated throughout the Hebrew
Bible. The second part (pp. 102-194) presents the “ Course of
the History ” ; it gives under the several epochs marked out by the
political history the various developments of the literary forms as
listed in the preceding part. The development of the subject is
closely knit, but excellently articulated; there may be noted the
integration into that history of the Yahwist. the Elohist and the
Deuteronomist, pp. 112 If., 126 ff., 138 ff. Running comparison is
made with the similar forms in Egyptian and Babylonian-Assvrian
literature, with a useful apparatus of citation and bibliographical
reference; the likenesses are generously allowed, along with the
possibilities of dependence upon the literary forms of the Empires,
but Israel’s peculiar genius is fully honored. Throughout there is
a wealth of fine literary judgment, much of it packed away in long
i stretches of finer type. One literary criticism might be made, that
| the author, doubtless owing to the need to compress his exten-
sive material, has indulged too much in the long and involved
period, familiar to the German, often difficult to the outside Bar-
barian. Very admirable are the brief surveys of the several his-
torical periods, preceding each section. In citation of verse the
metrical forms are always presented, by accent-count, and all
cases of text correction are scrupulously indicated. More than
most students of Hebrew letters Hempel recognizes the worth of
the prose, and the reviewer heartily agrees with him in his pro-
I nouncement (p. 94) that in the writing of history Israelite litera-
ture has produced its truly unique contribution (“ ihre eigenar-
tigste Leistung”). And the writer lays his finger, perhaps indi-
rectly, upon the secret of this blossoming of Israel’s interest in
210
Reviews of Books
history (p. 99) : “Religioses und geschiehtliches Denken sind ja
in Israel nicht von einander zu trennen ; geschichtlich denken aber
heisst fiir seine rationale Eigenart : Geschichte erklaren nnd ver-
stehen.” All of which is summed up in Schiller’s statement, which
was Israel’s basic judgment of history: “ Weltgeschichte ist Welt-
gericht.” Under each section throughout the book is given a well-
selected bibliography, along with a copious apparatus of references
to authorities. The latter part of the work, in particular the sec-
tions on Jeremiah, Ezekiel Second Isaiah (Torrev’s Pseudo-Ezekiel
is ignored), appears rather cramped in comparison with the pre-
ceding sections; and the concluding section on the Hellenistic
literature is very brief, although capitally summarized. There is a
table of Addenda, pp. 195-7, necessitated by the long process of
publication, and also an excellent Index. The book deserves addi-
tion to every Biblical library, public and private.
James A. Montgomery.
University of Pennsylvania.
The Excavations at Dura-Evropos. Preliminary Report of Fifth
Season of Work, October 1931-March 1932. Ed. by M. I.
Bostovtzeff. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1934.
Pp. xviii -f- 322, with 52 plates of which four in colors.
The results of the 1931-2 season at Dura are recorded in the
fifth Preliminary Report which lies before me. The most striking
discoveries of this campaign were in architecture. The first seven
chapters, by Dr. Clark Hopkins, take up in turn the fortifications,
several important blocks of private houses, the market-place, the
temples of Aphlad and of Azzanathkona, the praetorium of the
Roman garrison, and above all the Christian chapel. In general
the finds are discussed room by room, immediately following the
architectural description, with the special exceptions of the papyri
and the hoard of coins.
Dr. Hopkins commences by reviewing briefly the chronology of
the fortifications. The citadel, certain details of whose construc-
tion he compares to Hellenistic examples at Ephesos, Priene,
Heraclea and Assos. he ascribes to a western school of militarv
architecture, but with some borrowings from the east. The outer
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211
fortification or enceinte is another matter. Cumont and Fillet
thought both citadel and enceinte the consecutive work of Seleucid
engineers. In later Reports, however, the completion of the
enceinte has been referred to the beginning of the Christian era.
Dr. Hopkins now links it with the earliest date recorded epi-
graphically in a temple of the city — 32 b. c., in the Temple of
Artemis. To the succeeding ninety years belong the earliest date
recorded from the enceinte — 17/16 b. c., on the monumental
Palmyrene Gate— and the earliest dedications in three temples —
12/13 A. d. in the Temple of Azzanathkona, 53 a. d. in the Temple
of Aphlad, and 55 a. d. in the Temple of the Palmyrene Gods. He
reasons (pp. 132-3) that these temples were probably built not
long before their earliest preserved dated inscriptions, that this
ninety-year period was no doubt one of great prosperity, that vari-
ous new ethnic elements were attracted by this prosperity and
introduced their particular cults at that time, that a larger city
scheme was adopted giving new room for sacred precincts, i. e., that
not long before this period the great outer wall had been built
around the growing city. I could not draw an unconfused conclu-
sion from this sequence of events, but with little reluctance Dr.
Hopkins assigns the enceinte to the close of the pagan era.
Dr. Hopkins’ and my divergent views on the walls have been
debated verbally, at Dura and elsewhere. I think we are agreed
that the principal problem is the date at which the eventual maxi-
mum area of Dura intra moenia was established. Xone the less
we have often found ourselves arguing on subsidiary problems :
whether this enceinte was constructed at once of stone, or initially
of iibn which would later be replaced unit by unit in stone, or in
some other manner. The lack of bonding between the masonry of
certain towers and that of their adjacent walls may or may not
indicate that the original enceinte enjoyed stone towers connected
by mud brick walls. All this does not matter. While interesting
for a study of military architecture, it is apart from the real issue :
on the day when Dura’s government undertook to guard a speci-
fied wall line the city within that line began to take shape.
I prefer to assign the whole eventual plan to the moment of
foundation; the natural possibilities for enceinte fortification pro-
vided by the north and south wadis, to be united by the compara-
tively short west wall, taken in conjunction with the interior
7
212
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ravines which determined the extent of the citadel, would not have
been overlooked by the builders of the latter. This falls naturally
in the early third century b. c., immediately following the coloniza-
tion of Europos. For a variety of reasons I would ascribe the
enceinte to a date not later than the close of this same third cen-
tury. The position of Dura as a provincial center with its record-
office implies some capacity for defense. I am impressed by the
discovery of a parchment of the early second century b. c. beside
the Tower of the Archers and of numismatic evidence of a Seleucid
foundation in the Temple of Artemis, by Dr. Hopkins’ own demon-
stration (pp. 76 if.) that the agora was laid out in the early Par-
thian or the Seleucid period, and by his hitherto overlooked
parallels (p. 4) between the citadel and the enceinte which narrow
the gap between them. I cannot visualize the Parthian governor
so wealthy and at once so foolhardy as to fortify at fabulous ex-
pense a frontier post on the far bank of the Euphrates, at the
mercy of any western or southern enemy who could prevent rein-
forcements from crossing; there were many points in the Jezireh
strategically more important to the Parthians.
I am not moved by the fact that dated epigraphical evidence
only begins in 32 b. c., for early colonists are not self-conscious and
generations may lapse, as at Minturnae, before a large body of
texts appears. Any rebuilding or restoration might have been
attended by the complete cleaning out of archaic or superseded
inscriptions. The inscription of 32 b. c. might have been, though
it probably wasn t, inscribed on a column already two centuries
old. The argument from silence is weak here, as ever.
But the best evidence ought to be the architectural details of the
citadel and the enceinte itself. To me the towers, gates, arches,
doorways, windows, etc., resemble details of fortifications of the
third and second centuries b. c. in Asia Minor and the Greek main-
land. These same criteria Dr. Hopkins accepts as pointing to the
end of the first century. His theory of eastern influence is largely
based on parallels at Hatra : what happens to this theorv if Hatra
is shown to be the work of Parthian-hired Greek engineers?
The simple fact is that neither Dr. Hopkins nor myself, nor
anyone else, has made or had time to make the study of the walls
that the walls deserve. A competent architect with archaeological
training ought to spend one of the remaining campaigns on a con-
centrated study of the walls and their parallels.
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213
I feel strongly on this subject not principally for the sake of the
walls themselves, for they will eventually find their own way to
their correct date, but from concern for the buildings within them.
Hopkins’ view defers their foundation to the period following 32
B. c. — for we may all agree that such valued buildings as temples
would not have been erected in the unfortified desert. Buildings
which do not at first fit the pattern stipulated by this date are
sawed off or stretched, like the unhappy victims of Procrustes, to
make them fit. If on the other hand this clamp were removed and
the walls and temples, objects deserving of the most assiduous
study, were allowed to fluctuate until they came to rest at their
own levels, our historical study of Dura’s architecture would be
greatly benefited. In the meantime Dr. Hopkins’ insistence on
this date vitiates every phase of his and his colleagues’ architec-
tural researches.
I do not wish to dwell any further on the table of contents
per se, but I cannot go on without calling special attention to the
market-place of Dura and the parallels which Dr. Hopkins has
drawn between it and the suq of modern Arab towns, and to the
Christian chapel whose architecture has been described ably by
Dr. Hopkins and whose inept but fascinating mural decorations
are the subject of a capable study by Professor P. V. C. Baur, who
ascribes them to a purely eastern school at the very beginning of
the third century.
Also to be numbered among the most valuable discoveries of a
singularly successful season is the large number of papyri found
in rooms W 13 and W 18 of the Temple of Azzanathkona. All or
most are from the archives of the nearby praetorium, and reflect
a wide range of activities of the cohorts detailed to Dura. Several
are extensive, one for instance being a roll 2.25 m. in length. It
was clearly out of the question to prepare a formal publication of
these in time to be included in the present volume ; instead, a brief
list of the least rotten specimens, with typical excerpts, is presented
with the promise that these documents will be published in full
elsewhere.
The volume is edited by Bostovtzeff without the assistance of
Professors Baur or Bellinger. Rostovtzeff also, with the aid of
Kenneth Boyce, read the proofs. I note a number of misprints
and errors such as, on p. 130, 0.001 for 0.01; p. 132 salle for
214
Reviews of Boohs
salles, p. 197 under inscr. no. 548 1929-30 for 1928-9 and ipr for
v? rr'; Plate XXVIII Phechimnaios for E(h)echimnaios. The
orthography of the expedition architects leaves something to be
desired; Pearson’s Romen for Roman (Plate III) and Deigert’s
graphiti for graffiti (Plate XXXIV) escaped editorial correction
and give the volume an illiterate appearance it does not deserve.
Dr. Hopkins’ statement, on p. 115 under no. 418, that the name
‘P a X t/*mios is not found elsewhere, is strictly true, though in this
same report 'Pt^/uxuo? appears (no. 504) as well as a feminine
form ’VexajMivvaia (no. 517). There is some disagreement as to
accent ; ‘Paxt/iiaio? (*Pc-) appears beside 'Paxt>v<nos (‘Pc-). A Latin
transliteration Rahiminanaeus appears at Minturnae. The cross-
references under no. 517 are apparently numbered by a provisional
catalogue ; for no. 480 read no. 504 and for no. 455 read no. 418.
On p. 188 under no. 526 ’A padiapa, a name already known at Dura,
might have been cited as a suitable parallel to ’A imOkovu.
As usual in Dura reports, this volume with 312 pages of subject
matter has no index except of inscriptions. Opening it at random,
I observe for instance that there is no way to find the description
of the silver crown illustrated on Plate XIX 3 except to read the
whole volume. It seems to me the sheerest folly to frustrate so
much accumulated research for such petty economies.
Space in the Journal leaves no room for the compliments one
could pay this volume. With or without flaws, the results of this
fifth season make this volume a stimulating contribution to Hel-
lenistic history and archaeology and the most remarkable publica-
tion yet issued by the competent and brilliantly successful school
of Dura archaeology, built up by Rostovtzeff within Yale’s classical
department and admirably led in the field by Dr. Hopkins.
University Museum. JoTHAM JOHNSON.
Philadelphia.
Catalogue of the Sanskrit and Prakrit Manuscripts in the Library
of the India Office. Volume II. Brahmanical and Jaina
Manuscripts. By Arthur Berriedale Keith. With a Supple-
ment: Buddhist Manuscripts. By F. W. Thomas. Clarendon
Press : Oxford. 1935. Price 884.00.
This presentation of the Catalogue of Sanskrit Manuscripts in
the India Office in published form compensates for its long-delaved
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215
appearance by its admirable arrangement and completeness. The
compilers are to be congratulated for the exact and detailed classi-
fication of the material. The list of contents together with the
Index of authors and titles guides one unerringly to that which he
seeks.
The description of each item with a statement of the number of
folios, the material (paper, etc.), the form of gathering, the size of
leaf, the script, the exact or approximate date, the number of lines
to a leaf, the title, the author (if any), a brief but skillful descrip-
tion of the contents, indicating the degree of correctness, together
with mention of the presence of decorations and illuminations, the
quotation of the beginning and end of each manuscript, and perti-
nent bibliographical notes, is thoroughly adequate and enables one
to judge quickly the condition and value of any particular
manuscript.
In view of the tremendous value of this excellent and accurate
piece of work one hesitates to offer any adverse criticism. My only
personal suggestion is that an index by script and a list of the
illustrated manuscripts might have been added.
The Katha Upanisad. An Introductory Study in the Hindu Doc-
trine of God and of Human Destiny. By Joseph Nadin
Rawsox. Oxford University Press. London: Humphrey
Milford, Calcutta: Association Press, 1934. Pp. xviii + 242.
Price 5.00.
It is to be regretted that what is obviously intended only as a
text-book for the students of the author has received the accolade
of such perfection of typography and general format.
The author’s analysis of the Katha Upanishad lies too much on
the side of propaganda. Mr. Rawson, in tacit agreement with
Mr. Kumarappa, the author of The Hindu Conception of The
Deity, is carried away by his doctrinal enthusiasm in claiming for
the Upanishads in general a preponderance of belief in a personal
deity of grace. His text is : There is no message that the modern
world needs more than the great Upanishad doctrine of Unity.
The text itself is based upon previous editions. The author’s
arrangement of commentary, translation and text is inexplicably
216
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haphazard and careless. Occasionally in the commentary there is
no numeral to indicate which Terse is being treated. This defect,
however, will present little difficulty to the astute student of the
Katha Upanishad, who can use the commentary of the author as
a spring-board to his own deductions.
HORACE I. POLEIIAN.
University of Pennsylvania.
The Manyosu, translated and annotated. Book III. By J. L.
Piersost, Jk. Leyden, Late E. J. Brill Ltd., 1933. Pp.
xix 379, 2 p.
In 1929 Dr. Pierson published the first volume of the present
series on the Manyosu and stated in the Preface that his study is to
be strictly from the point of view of a linguist. The Manyo
anthology is the oldest Japanese collection of poems compiled in
the 8th century, and the poems are written by means of Chinese
characters used phonetically, known as Manyo kana, the parents
of the modern Japanese syllabary. The primary purpose of the
present translation is not to make this treasure house of the ancient
Japanese culture available to Western students, for already
Dickens, Waley, and Chamberlain as well as Aston and Florenz have
contributed much on the side of its artistic interpretation. Dr.
Pierson rather considers the present task as a necessary prepara-
tion to determine the Japanese language of the 7th and the first
half of the 8th centuries. Therefore, each word and each form
of that word is noted down with its place in the sentence, its trans-
lation, the number of the poem and the Book, and the different
characters in which it is written. When the last poem of the
twenty books is translated, then the author hopes to commence his
real task of compiling a reliable etymological dictionary of the
Japanese language. Furthermore, with this basic stud}’, he hopes
to venture to compare it with the languages of the surrounding
countries.
The present volume completes 243 poems of the total 4496.
Each poem is given in both the Manyo kana and transliteration in
roman letters, followed by translation, general remarks, grammar,
script, and different readings. For the authors purpose, the trans-
literation plays an important role; hence he makes a careful dis-
Reviews of Books
217
tinetion in transcribing such sounds as ha (va) and wa; e, ye , and
we; i, yi, and wi, etc. For the English speaking readers who have
been accustomed to the Hepburn style of romanization, in spite of
an essay “ On the transliteration and transcription of the Japanese
kana, archaic, ancient and modern,” in the preface to Volume 1,
Dr. Pierson’s system is a bit confusing. Perhaps when the work
is completed and characters indexed, then, we can better under-
stand the logic of his system.
In translating poetry, one’s claim to absolute literalness often
raises some doubts as well as complicated problems. Moreover,
the criterion of literalness is difficult to establish, and even if we
take for granted that it is applied with strict grammatical accuracy,
good poetry seldom conforms to grammatical formulas. In its
unconventional use of words one finds full utterance of artistic
impulse which creates an over-tone. Especially when the original
is as compact and suggestive as Japanese poetry, I doubt whether
one can be certain that “ the real ‘ flavour ’ of the language is far
better preserved in a literal translation ” or not. A literal trans-
lation to be good should take all these matters into serious con-
sideration and still be faithful to the original.
In this respect, I disagree with Dr. Pierson. To give a concrete
example, on p. 158 Tabito’s poem,
Kono yo ni si tanusiku araba,
Kom i/o ni va, must ni tori ni mo
Are va narinamu.
is translated as :
If I only live happily now, then I do not care if I become an insect or a
bird in the next world.
The very literal translation I wish to give will be :
If, in this world. I can be happy. I am willing to be an insect or a bird
in the world to come.
In the original there is only one ‘if’; kono yo is not ‘now,’ but
‘in this world’; kom yo is not ‘the next world.’ but ‘the world
to come.’
Another example is a humorous poem by Okura on p. 147, which
is translated as:
I, Okura can now at last return home. The children will perhaps cry
and that mother of them too will (surely) be waiting me.
218
Reviews of Boohs
I would translate it:
Okura now will take his leave. The children may be crying and their
mother too may be waiting for me.
The use of such words as ‘ can,’ ‘ I, Okura,’ and * at last ’ spoils
genial mood and light touch of this poem. As an excuse for leav-
ing the banquet scene early, Okura mentions his wife and children
in third person.
Tama & (v. 1, P- 12) are ‘pearls’ as Dr. Pierson translates,
but tama no wo no 3? (v. 3, p. 241) refers to maga-tama, a string
of beads made of jade. The names of the months such as fumit-
suki and kisaragi translated as ‘ July ’ and ‘ March ’ are mi slea din g
to the Western readers. Personally I prefer ‘ the seventh month ’
and ‘ the third month.’
The intrinsic value of Dr. Pierson’s task, however, is not at all
marred by such minor objections I have raised, and we shall look
forward to his thorough study of the Manyo kana.
Shiragi ko-ga no kenkyu. Study on the ancient tiles of the Silla
dynasty with a corpus of ancient tiles of the Silla. By
Kosaku Hamada and Sueji U mehara. Beport upon archae-
ological research in the Dept, of Literature, Kyoto Imperial
University. Yol. XIII. Tokvo, Toko Shoin, 1934 Pp.
118 + 76 plates.
In 1903 Dr. P. Sekino first noticed fragments of roof-tiles and
bricks scattered oier fields and road-side of Silla, and collected
some 600 items which he compiled into a volume included in the
Atlas of Kotean Antiquities, v. \ . L nfortunately, the specimens
came from peasants or dealers’ hands, and one cannot be certain of
their authenticity. In recent years, however, H. Moroga and K.
Mitsunari made regional searches for these tiles, and the present
study is based on them.
The invention of roof-tiles and bricks in burnt clay seems earlier
in China than in W estern countries, appearing long before the
Christian era. South Manchuria and northern Korea yielded Han
tiles, but Kudara and Silla, two of the ancient southern kingdoms,
yielded tiles of different patterns, far more artistic and versatile
Reviews of Books
219
They are confined to the sites of the palaces and Buddhistic tem-
ples which date back to the 6th century. The majority is the
common roof-tile, convex or half cylindrical, with or without deco-
rated face, besides some unusually shaped tiles used for roof-
corners and rafter ends. They were manufactured with moulds,
sometimes of wood, when precise patterns were needed, but mostly
of clay.
Generally speaking, the Silla tiles fall into two main groups:
convex tiles with ornamental disks and concave tiles with orna-
mental faces. The chief designs in the first group are of the lotus
flower which came into vogue with the introduction of Buddhism.
At first the petals were single, but gradually more complicated
chrysanthemum-like flowers or broad double petal patterns ap-
peared. A graceful design of the honey suckle and acanthus leaves
and other naturalistic flower patterns as well as various animal de-
signs are superably executed. As to the concave tiles, they ap-
peared later, and the decorative treatment is freer and more grace-
ful than the others, and the motives fall into kcirakusa or vine
designs, and angels and animals.
As to the tile patterns and the sites where they were found, the
authors note the following points: first in Silla a single temple
site often yields many different patterns. For example Hr. Hitsu-
nari collected 67 different pieces of tiles in a day at the site of the
Korin Temple. In a Japanese temple site a very moderate num-
ber of tiles with different patterns are ever found. Secondly,
samples of one and the same pattern are found at various sites.
The first point is explained by the authors as artists’ desire to
satisfy their own artistic impulse, quite unconcerned about the
unity of the tile patterns. Furthermore, temples were often either
restored or rebuilt in the course of centuries, employing different
tiles of period and pattern. Secondly, unlike Japan, where each
temple had its own kilns to make tiles, there were at Keishu, the
capital of Silla, only a few tile factories, and tiles were distributed
from them on demand to various temples.
The volume is beautifully illustrated and the text carefully
documented.
Shio Sakanishi.
Library of Congress.
220
Reviews of Books
Das chinesische Schattentheater. By Geokg Jacob and Hans
Jensen. Stuttgart: 1933. Pp. xy + 130.
In the third volume of the Oriental Shadow-theater Series,
edited by Jacob and Kahle, Professors Georg Jacob and Hans
Jensen show what scholars, although themselves not Sinologues,
can do when they deal with Chinese material. Das chinesische
Schattentheater is an account of material relevant to the Chinese
shadow-theater available in Germany. With the exception of a few
errors and debatable points, the book is a well-rounded handbook
on the Chinese shadow-theater. Since a table of contents is not to
be found, a summary of the topics in the monograph will not be
out of place.
The main part of the book consists of eight chapters (pp. 1-86)
for which Professor Jacob is responsible, and two appendices (pp.
89-122) by Professor Jensen. In addition there is a Foreword
(vii-xv) by Professor Jacob, an Addenda to the periodical bibli-
ography of the Oriental Shadow-theater in the First and Second
Volumes of the Series (pp. 8T-88), an Index of Chinese words
(pp. 123-130) and a Postscript.
The Foreword enumerates the material on which this study is
based. There is the Koln Collection of 1,200 small and 900 large
figures, most of which are from the time of Ch‘ien-Lung (1736-
1796). now in the Kolner Institut fiir Theater-wissensehaft. There
is another collection of 2.919 figures, also from the time of Ch £ ien-
Lung, but a little older than the Koln collection. This collection is
now housed in the Deutsche Ledermuseum zu Offenbach. Another
collection has 1.300 figures, some of which may belong to the time
of Yung Cheng (1723-1735). has been brought to Hamburg. The
fourth collection, of 6 figures only, is interesting because of its
esthetic quality. It was brought from the province of Szechuan
and presented to the Kieler Theatermuseum by Dr. Chuan Chen,
then a student at Kiel. The introduction includes a brief bibli-
ography. It is sobering to note that even in Germany, the land of
scholars, the facilities for this kind of study are by no means per-
fect (see pp. xiii-xiv).
The first chapter deals with the origin and ancient history of
the shadow-theater in China. It is meagre, but by this time one
should learn not to expect much from studies about origins. The
Reviews of Books
221
second chapter, also very short, deals with the material which
German scholarship has made accessible to students.
The third chapter, on the plot, demonstrates the wealth and
importance of this material. It is regrettable, however, that in
discussing the religious plot, the author should have unhesitatingly
connected the White and Black Snakes with Totemism and the
Kitchen God with Fetishism. Time was when every cock and bull
story was endowed with totemistic significance. Nowadays people
are more wary. Various scholars have used Fetishism in various
senses , 1 but where can we find assurance for the belief that the god
of the Kitchen is identical with the kitchen? The whole matter
needs of course special treatment: here I simply register a mild
protest. Professor Jacob’s treatment of Taoism and Buddhism is
sound. From religious plots he proceeds to historical plots, a social
play and bourgeois scenes and farces. The wide range of the ma-
terial shows that further studies of this one aspect alone will be
fruitful as well as formidable. It is also to be hoped that such
studies will lead to a complete motive-index of Chinese folklore,
but of that elsewhere.
In the fourth chapter Professor Jacob enters into a detailed
study of the figures. This study consists of four parts: deities,
racial types, animals and accessories. The illustrations in this
section are particularly helpful to readers who have no access to
the collections themselves.
The fifth chapter, about the performance itself, suffers from an
inevitable lack of illustrations. A play must be seen to be under-
stood. The author has seen amateur performances in Kiel. The
reader must have at least a similar opportunity in order to have
substantial impressions from the performance.
In the sixth chapter Professor Jacob observes that in the Chi-
nese shadow-theater didacticism is placed above esthetics. His dis-
cussion of the function of the Chinese theater is adequate. The
stage in China has always had, at least in principle, a high moral
mission. This is not strange when one thinks of the illiteracy of
the Chinese masses and the consequent need of a means of educa-
tion that will appeal less through the written, than through the
spoken, word.
In the seventh chapter, on the tasks of the future. Professor
1 See article in the Encyclopaedia of Social Sciences.
222
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Jacob shows a thorough understanding of the demands of this par-
ticular branch of study. He touches upon every important phase
of the study of the Chinese shadow-theater. The eighth chapter, the
shadow -theater as a source of Chinese folklore, is by far the most
interesting and the richest section of the book. Under the heading
of religion, the author dwells on deities, heaven and hell, belief
about the soul, fate, demonology and festivals. Other topics are
the Emperor, family life, poverty and greed, shops, official and
scholarly careers, soldiers, robbers and civilians, justice and the
chase. From this chapter one derives a far more realistic picture
of Chinese life than from any other discussion. If it were only for
this contribution, the shadow-theater deserves to be studied. The
relation between the shadow-theater and other branches of folklore,
for example, Marchen, legends and popular romances, is very
strongly marked.
The contributions of Professor Jensen are well integrated. Ap-
pendix I, on the “ pun in Chinese Shadow-plays,” must seem for-
bidding to people who are not Sinologists. Its vast importance
becomes clear, however, when one undertakes to read an actual
Chinese play, or even a translated one, if faithfully done . 2 Of
such Professor Jensen has supplied a very happy example in Die
Spinnennetzhohle (The Cave of Silk-nets). While I have to re-
frain from criticizing the translation, because the original is not
at hand, I must say that the adding of Professor Jensen’s study
and translation to Professor Jacob’s work effects an excellent
combination.
The numerous illustrations in white and black and the one-page
imitation reproduction of the text are highly satisfactory, although
colored illustrations obviously would be more so.
Throughout the reading of the book I am impressed by the clear
and straightforward prose of Professor J acob. The experience of
reading other German scholars has not always been so happy. The
system of transcription of Chinese sounds emploved bv the author
is hardly an advance over the makeshift of' Anglo-American
scholars.
I venture to append a list of errata and doubtful points:
P. 54, -Vote 20, K'ung Mi ng invented face-painting in order to frighten
* The pun in literature and magic is a very important subject needin*
fuller treatment, especially in Sinology. ‘ °
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223
his enemies. ( ? ) An unpublished dissertation of Mr. Chang Ts‘un
Hsiang on “ Theatrical Masks in China ” may throw further light
on the question.
P. 56, L. 1. For Li Ts‘un-Hsu read Li Ts‘un-Hsiao.
P. 65, from bottom LL. 10-11. For Ming Tai-Tsung (1628-1644) read
Ming Ssu-Tsung.
P. 69, L. 9. For Tsch’ng-tu Fug read Fng-tu Tsch‘ng.
P. 69, L. 15. For Yueh-King-T'ai read Xieh-King-T‘ai.
Ibid. For Mond read Schuld.
P. 80, L. 9. “ Barentatzen ” belongs at least to the popular list of the
Eight Precious Foods (Delikatessen! ) . The world is still awaiting
a special article on the true history of the Eight Precious Foods.
P. 82, Note 110. Is irrelevant, the story is legendary.
P. 82, LL. 17-18 “ bezeichnet eigentlich nur einen Student der
Eeichsuniversitat (Kuo-tse-tschien in Peking).” (?)
P. 84, L. 4. For “paper-horses” see Don’, Jtecherches sur les Super-
stitions en Chine, Part I, Tome II, Chap. Ill, p. 296 and plate.
T. T. Shui.
National University of Shantung,
Tsingtao, China.
The Chinese Renaissance. By He Shih. Chicago: Univebsity
of Chicago Press, 1934. Pp. 110.
This little book contains six Haskell lectures delivered at the
University of Chicago in 1933. The treatment is popular, there
is no index, and Dr. Hu seldom cites authorities outside his own
published works in English. Nevertheless it is a valuable histori-
cal treatise on the cultural changes taking place in China, written
by the man who is regarded as more responsible for some of those
changes than any other. The analyses are always interesting and
frequently show great penetration.
One or two criticisms may be made. Dr. Hu does not seem to
appreciate the conservative force of the classical education com-
bined with the government examinations and the appointments
to the civil service. Men with a classical education always oppose
change, in both west and east. But the situation in China re-
sembled what the situation in the west would have been had the
teachers of Latin and Greek been also the government officials.
Dr. Hu appears to underestimate the merits of an ideographic
language, and the scientific achievements of his nation, and ignores
224
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the fact that the advance in western science is largely the result of
the development of the artificial experiment and “ Arabic ” nota-
tion, rather than of a greater interest in science. In his chapter
on religion, he naively maintains that the ancient Chinese religion
was the result of climatic conditions. But the book is stimulating,
and should be read by all those interested in the history of cultural
dynamics.
Modern Trends in World-Religions. Edited by A. Eustace Hay-
don. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1934. Pp.
xiv -f- 255.
This book contains printed lectures delivered at the University
of Chicago under the Haskell Foundation. Six religions — Islam,
Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Hinduism —
are considered in relation to modern scientific thinking, modern
social-economic problems, inter-cultural contacts, and the task of
modern religion. Each religion is studied separately by a different
scholar, sometimes by several scholars. The men are well-known
and properly qualified, including such names as Sprengling, Pratt,
Allen, Joshi, Kaplan, Xatarajan, Hodous, and Hu Shih.
The book assumes that all living religions change continually,
and that the present offers unusual problems to which religions
must be adjusted. It makes little or no attempt to estimate those
factors in human nature which do not change, or those features of
religion which are permanent. Perhaps the authors do not con-
sider that there are any such. The treatment in general is liberal,
and the reviewer gathered the impression from the book that a
man can hardly be conservative and scholarly at the same time.
One of the authors admits frankly that he is an agnostic. In such
a collection it is inevitable that the work should sometimes be
uneven, and that different writers should have somewhat different
ideas of what religion is, and how it should be approached. It is
impossible to make detailed criticism, but the reviewer would like
to know the authority for the statement of Professor Hodous on
page 171, that Confucius was regarded as a god in the 1st Cen.
B. C. In general, the book is stimulating, and its scholarly stand-
ard is high.
Reviews of Boohs
225
The Buddhism of Tibet. By L. Austin's Waddell. Second Edi-
tion. Cambridge : Heffeb, 1934. Pp. xlviii + 598 ; profusely
illustrated.
The first edition of this book was issued in 1895. The present
edition is a reprint issued by the photographic process, with a
thirty-five page preface added. It is unnecessary to say anything
about a photographed text on its fortieth anniversary, except that
it ought to have been brought up to date, especially in the notes.
Beal is still the chief authority on Chinese Buddhism for Waddell,
and the great amount of work done since 1895 is ignored. On Tibet
itself, Waddell ignores Desideri before him, and Sir Charles Bell
after him, as well as the work of scholars like Levi, Laufer, Stael-
Holstein, Vallee-Poussin and Wolfenden. It is absurd to print a
badly-drawn sketch of the Potala, when excellent photographs are
easily available. This edition should be popular in Germany, for
Waddell is wedded to the theory that all good things, including
the Buddha, are Aryan. The work cannot, at this date, be regarded
as critical. This is too bad. The book has an important place in
the history of western knowledge of Tibet. It ought to have been
rewritten, and a new and adequate set of notes added. The bibli-
ography is hopelessly out-of-date, listing Klaproth, Monier-Wil-
liams. Hue, and Terrien de Lacouperie, but omitting all modern
names.
Philadelphia.
J. K. Shrtock.
CONSTITUTION AND BY-LAWS
OF THE
AMERICAN ORIENTAL SOCIETY
[We present here, in parallel columns, the present Constitution
and By-Laws of the Society, and the new form proposed by the
Committee on Policy, which will be presented for formal action at
the 1936 meeting. The parts common to both run across the page;
the parts which are in the present Constitution and By-Laws only
stand to the left of the black line in the center of the page, and the
proposed changes and additions stand to the right of the black line.
Suggestions for further changes or additions should be sent at once
to Prof. E. H. Sturtevant, Yale Graduate School, New Haven,
Conn.]
OLD CONSTITUTION NEW
| Name
Article I. This Society shall be called the American Oriental Society.
| Objects
Article II. The objects contemplated by this society shall be:
1. The cultivation of learning in the Asiatic, African, and Polynesian
languages, as well as the encouragement of researches of any sort by which
the knowledge of the East may be promoted.
2. The cultivation of a taste for Oriental studies in this country.
3. The publication of memoirs, translations, vocabularies, and other
communications, presented to the Society, which may be valuable with
reference to the before-mentioned objects.
4. The collection of a library and cabinet.
| Membership and Election
Article III. The membership of the Society shall consist of corporate
members, honorary members, and honorary associates.
Article IV. Section 1. Honorary members
and honorary associates shall be may be elected only upon recommen-
proposed for membership by the dation of the Executive Committee
Directors, at some stated meeting and the vote of not less than three-
of the Society, and no person shall fourths of the members present at
be elected a member of either class an annual meeting. No further
without receiving the votes of as honorary associates shall be elected,
many as three-fourths of all the
members present at the meeting.
226
Constitution and By-Laws
227
OLD
Section 2. Candidates for cor-
porate membership may be proposed
and elected in the same way as
honorary members and honorary
associates. They may also be pro-
posed at any time by any member
in regular standing. Such proposals
shall be in writing and shall be
addressed to the Corresponding
Secretary, who shall thereupon sub-
mit them to the Executive Committee
for its action. A unanimous vote
of the Executive Committee shall be
necessary in order to elect.
Article V. Section 1. The gov-
ernment of the Society shall consist
of a President, three Vice-Presidents,
a Corresponding Secretary, a Record-
ing Secretary, a Treasurer, a Li-
brarian, three Editors of the Journal,
the President and the Secretary of
any duly authorized branch of the
Society, and nine Directors. The
officers of the Society shall be elected
at the annual meeting, by ballot, for
a term of one year. The Directors
shall consist of three groups of three
members each, one group to be elected
each year at the annual meeting for
a term of three years. No Director
shall be eligible for immediate re-
election as Dirt ctor, tho he may be
chosen as an officer of the Society
Section 2. An Executive Com-
mittee, consisting of the President,
Corresponding Secretary, and Treas-
urer, and two other Directors each
elected for a term of two years, shall
be constituted by the Board of Direc-
tors. The Executive Committee shall
have power to take action provision-
ally in the name of the Society on
8
NEW
Section 2. Corporate members
shall be elected by the Executive
Committee. Each corporate member
shall pay into the treasury of the
Society an annual assessment of five
dollars, but shall be exempt from
obligation to make this annual pay-
ment in case he shall have made to
the Society at any one time a dona-
tion of one hundred dollars less one
half the amount he has paid in
annual assessments. The Executive
Committee may, for due cause, re-
lease members from the payment of
annual assessments.
Officers and Government
Article V. Section 1. The officers
of the Society shall be a President,
a Vice-President, a Secretary, a
Treasurer, a Librarian, an Editor,
and two Associate Editors. The
officers shall be elected at the annual
meeting for a term of one year.
Section 2. There shall be an
Executive Committee consisting of
the President, the Vice-President, the
Secretary, the Treasurer, the Editor,
the Presidents of Branches of the
Society, and three other members of
the Society, one of whom shall be
elected at each annual meeting for a
term of three years, and shall not
228
Constitution and By-Laws
OLD
matters of importance which may
arise between meetings of the Society
or of the Board of Directors, and on
which, in the Committee’s opinion,
action cannot be postponed without
injury to the interests of the Society.
Notice of all actions taken by the
Executive Committee shall be printed
as soon as possible in the Jo URN at,.
and shall be reported to the Direc-
tors and the Society at the succeed-
ing annual meeting. Unless such
actions, after being thus duly ad-
vertised and reported, are dis-
approved by a majority vote of the
members present at any session of
the succeeding annual meeting, they
shall be construed to have been rati-
fied and shall stand as actions of
the Society.
Articlf. VI. The President and
Vice-Presidents shall perform the
customary duties of such officers,
and shall be ex officio members of
the Board of Directors.
NEW
be eligible for immediate re-election.
Between meetings of the Society the
Executive Committee shall have
power to take any action that the
Society itself could take; but all
its acts must be reported to the Soci-
ety at the next annual meeting. The
Executive Committee may recom-
mend action by the Society at the an-
nual meeting, and it shall adopt a
j budget annually. The Secretary may
on his own initiative, and shall at the
request of any other member of the
Committee, ask the Executive Com-
mittee to vote upon specific ques-
tions by mail, and if a majority of
the Committee shall vote by mail for
or against any measure thus sub-
mitted that vote shall be decisive;
provided that any member of the
Committee may demand that a pro-
posal shall be discussed at a meet-
ing of the Committee before final
decision; in which case a mail vote
shall be invalid.
Article VI. All Ex-Presidents of
the Society and the Associate
Editors shall be entitled to attend
meetings of the Executive Committee,
but they shall not vote except as
hereinafter provided. If any mem-
ber of the Executive Committee is
unable to attend a meeting of the
Committee he may appoint an Ex-
President to vote in his stead, and
the Editor may in like case appoint
one of the Associate Editors. If at
any meeting of the Executive Com-
mittee a member is absent and is not
represented by a proxy of his own
choice, the presiding officer of the
Executive Committee may appoint
an Ex-President to vote in his stead.
Constitution and By-Laws
229
OLD NEW
Article VII. The Secretaries, the Article VII. The investment of
Treasurer, the Librarian, and the the Society’s permanent funds, in-
three Editors of the Journal shall eluding all donations made in accord-
be ex officio members of the Board ance with Article IV, Section 2,
of Directors, and shall perform their shall be managed by a Committee
respective duties under the super- on Investments, consisting of the
intendence of said Board. Treasurer and two other members
of the Society, to be appointed by
the Executive Committee.
Article VIII. It shall be the duty Article VIII. Section 1. The
of the Board of Directors to regulate Editor shall have charge of the
the financial concerns of the Society, Journal and of all other scientific
to superintend its publications, to publications of the Society, and shall
carry into effect the resolutions and supervise their publication within
orders of the Society, and to exercise the limitation of the funds certified
a general supervision over its affairs. by the Treasurer as available for
Five Directors at any regular meet- that purpose,
ing shall be a quorum for doing
business.
Section 2. The Associate Editors
should represent provinces of the
Oriental field in which the Editor is
not a specialist. The Editor should
consult with them in regard to
matters falling within their respec-
tive competencies; but, in case of
disagreement, the final decision shall
rest with the Editor.
Section 3. The Treasurer shall
act as business manager of the
Journal and all other publications
of the Society.
Meetings
Article IX. An Article IX. The
annual meeting of the Society shall be held
durino- Easter week, the days and in proximity to Easter, the precise
place of the meeing to be deter- time and place to be determined by
mined by the Directors. the Executive Committee.
One or more other meetings, at the discretion of the
Directors, I Executive Committee,
may be held each year at such time and place as the
Directors shall determine. I Executive Committee shall deter-
I mine.
230
Constitution and By-Laws
OLD NEW
Branches of the Society
Article X. To provide for scientific meetings of groups of members
living at too great a distance to attend the annual sessions of the Society,
branches | Branches
may be organized with the approval of the
Directors. | Society.
The details of organization are to be left to those forming a
branch | Branch
thus authorized, subject to formal ratification by the
Directors. Society.
Amendments
Article XI. This Constitution may be amended, on a recommendation
of the Directors, | of the Executive Committee,
by a vote of three-fourths of the members present at an annual meeting,
provided that notice of any proposed
amendment shall have been sent to
the members of the Society at least
three weeks before the meeting at
which it is to be considered.
BY-LAWS
I. The Corresponding Secretary
shall conduct the correspondence of
the Society; and he shall notify the
meetings in such manner as the
President or the Board of Directors
shall direct.
II. The Recording Secretary shall
keep a record of the proceedings of
the Society in a book provided for
the purpose.
III. a. The Treasurer shall have
charge of the funds of the Society;
and his investments, deposits, and
payments shall be made under the
Finance
I- The offices of Secretary and of
Treasurer shall be combined and
held by one person to be entitled
the Secretary-Treasurer. He shalL
have general oversight of the wel-
fare and business of the Society. He
shall prepare and present annually
to the Executive Committee a budget
for the ensuing year. He shall have
authority to make contracts and to
pay out money in accordance with
the directions of the Executive Com-
mittee. He shall receive a stipend
to be fixed by the Executive Com-
mittee, which stipend is to cover his
expenses, including clerical assist-
ance.
Constitution and By-Laws
231
OLD
superintendence of the Board of
Directors. At each annual meeting
he shall report the state of the
finances, with a brief summary of
the receipts and payments of the
previous year.
III. b. After December 31, 1896,
the fiscal year of the Society shall
correspond with the calendar year.
III. c. At each annual business
meeting in Easter week, the Presi-
dent shall appoint an auditing com-
mittee of two men — preferably men
residing in or near the town where
the Treasurer lives — to examine the
Treasurer’s accounts and vouchers,
and to inspect the evidences of the
Society’s property, and to see that
the funds called for by his balances
are in his hands. The Committee
shall perform this duty as soon as
possible after the New Year’s day
succeeding their appointment, and
shall report their findings to the
Society at the next annual business
meeting thereafter. If these findings
are satisfactory, the Treasurer shall
receive his acquittance by a certifi-
cate to that effect, which shall be
recorded in the Treasurer's book, and
published in the Proceedings.
NEW
II. The fiscal year of the Society
shall correspond with the calendar
year.
III. At each annual meeting the
President shall appoint two auditors
to examine the accounts of the
Secretary-Treasurer and of the Com-
mittee on Investments. The Auditors
shall perform their duty as soon as
possible after January 1, and shall
report to the Executive Committee
before the next animal meeting of
the Society.
| Papers and Manuscripts
IV. The Librarian shall keep a catalogue of all hooks belonging to the
Society, with the name of
the donors, if they are presented, j donors,
and shall at each annual meeting make a report of the accessions to the
Library during the previous year, and shall be
farther | further
guided in the discharge of his duties by such rules as the
Directors shall prescribe. | Executive Committee shall prescribe.
V. All papers read before the Society, and all manuscripts deposited by-
authors for publication, or for other purposes, shall be at the disposal of the
Board of Directors, | Editor,
unless notice to the contrary is given to the
232
Constitution and By-Laws
OLD
NEW
Editors at the time of presentation.
VI. Each corporate member shall
pay into the treasury of the Society
an annual assessment of five dollars ;
but shall be exempted from obliga-
tion to make this payment (a) in
case he or she shall have made at
any one time a donation of one hun-
dred dollars during the first decade
of membership, or (b) of seventy-
five dollars during the second decade,
or (c) of fifty dollars during the
third decade, or (d) of twenty-five
dollars during the fourth decade,
or (e) when he or she shall have
completed forty years of member-
ship, or on application, if he or she,
having been a member for twenty
years and having attained the age
of seventy, shall have retired from
the active exercise of the teaching
profession or of the ministry.
VII. Every member
shall be entitled to one
current
numbers of the JotT.XAl, issued
provided that he has paid his annual
us~essment for the previous year.
Back volumes of the
Editor at the time of presentation.
VI. Every member shall have the
right to present papers to the
Society. The papers actually to be
read at any meeting shall be selected
by a Program Committee consisting
of the Secretary-Treasurer and two
other members of the Society ap-
pointed hy the President. This com-
mittee shall have power to plan and
arrange the program in all details,
including allotment of time to each
paper.
The Journal
VII. Every member in regular
standing
of all
I
copy
during his membership.
Journal,
| so far as they are available,
shall be furnished to members in regular standing at twenty per cent
reduction from the list price.
All other publications of the Societv
may be furnished to members at such
reductions in price as the Directors
may determine.
Membership
VIII. Candidates for corporate membership who have been elected shall
qualify as members by payment of the first annual assessment within one
month from the time when notice of such election is mailed to them or
in the case of persons not residing in the United States, within a reasonable
time. A tailure so to qualify, unless explained to the satisfaction of the
Executive Committee, shall annul the election. If any corporate member
Constitution and By-Laws
233
OLD
NEW
shall for two years tail to pay his
assessments,
his name may,
after formal notification, be dropped from the list of members of the
shall for one year fail to pay his
assessment, his name shall be re-
moved from the mailing list of the
Journal ; and if he shall fail to pay
for two years, his name shall,
Society at the discretion of the
Executive Committee.
Society, unless the Executive Com-
mittee shall otherwise direct.
Standing Committees
IX. a. There shall be a Nominat-
ing Committee of six members, three
of whom shall be elected by the
Society at each annual meeting to
serve for two years. The members
of this committee shall be ineligible
for immediate re-election. The chair-
man of the committee shall be elected
by the Society from among those
members of the committee who have
already served for one year of the
term. This committee shall make
nominations for all elective offices
of the Society as provided in the
Constitution and By-Laws, but nomi-
nations from the floor shall have
equal standing.
IX. 6. There shall be a standing
Committee for the Promotion of
Oriental Research, to consist of three
members, each to hold office for a
period of three years; one of whom
shall be chosen annually by the
Executive Committee. It shall plan
and support meritorious projects in
Oriental fields.
IX. c. There shall be a Committee
on Co-operation, to be appointed by
the Executive Committee, which
shall further co-operation with the
work of organizations whose activi-
ties overlap or border upon the
Oriental fields, and shall suggest
the correlation of Oriental and mar-
234
Constitution and By-Laws
OLD NEW
ginal studies in institutions which
are devoted to teaching and research.
IX. d. There shall be a Committee
on Membership, to be appointed by
the Executive Committee, which
shall systematically endeavor to se-
cure new members. The Secretary-
Treasurer shall be ex-officio a mem-
ber of this committee.
IX. e. There shall be a Com-
mittee on the Enlargement of Re-
sources, to be appointed by the
Executive Committee, which shall
seek additional financial support
for the endowment funds and the
current activities of the Society.
The Secretary-Treasurer shall be ex-
officio a member of this committee.
The Library
X. a. The Library shall be acces-
sible
for consultation to all members of the Society, at such times as the Library
of Yale College, with which it is deposited, shall be open for a similar
purpose; further, to such persons as shall receive the permission of the
Librarian, or of the Librarian or Assistant Librarian of Yale College.
2. Any member shall be allowed to | X. b. Any member shall be al-
I lowed to
draw books from the Library upon the following conditions: he shall give
his receipt for them to the Librarian, pledging himself to make good any
detriment the Library may suffer from their loss or injury, the amount of
said detriment to be determined by the Librarian, with the assistance of the
President, or of a Vice-President; | Secretary -Treasurer ;
and he shall return them within a time not exceeding three months from
that of their reception, unless by special agreement with the Librarian
this term shall be extended.
3. Persons not members may also, | X. c. Persons not members may also
on special grounds, and at the dis- I
cretion of the Librarian. j
be allowed to take and use the Society’s books,
upon depositing with the Librarian J under the conditions of the inter-
a sufficient security that they shall library loan system.
SUPPLEMENTARY BY-LAWS
I. For the Library
1. The Library shall be accessible
Constitution and By-Laws
235
OLD NEW
be duly returned in good condition,
or their loss or damage fully com-
pensated.
II. On the Organization of Branches of the Society
Branches
1. Upon the formation of a branch, XI. a. Upon the formation of a
Branch,
as provided in the Constitution, the officers chosen shall have the right to
propose for corporate membership in the Society such persons as may
seem eligible to them, and, pending ratification according to Article IV of
the Constitution, these candidates shall receive the Journal and all notices
issued by the Society.
2. The annual fee of the members XI. b. Within the provisions of the
of a braneh shall be collected by the budget the Secretary-Treasurer of
Treasurer of the Society, in the usual the Society shall forward to the
manner, and in order to defray the Treasurer of each Branch funds
current expenses of a braneh the sufficient to defray the expenses of
Directors shall authorize the Treas- the Branch.
urer of the Society to forward from
time to time to the duly authorized
officer of the branch such sums as
may seem proper to the Treasurer.
The accounts of the Treasurer of the The accounts of the Treasurer of
branch shall be audited annually and each Branch shall be audited an-
a statement of the audit shall be nually, and a statement of the audit
sent to the Treasurer of the Society shall be included in the annual re-
to be included in his annual report. port of the Secretary-Treasurer of
the Society.
Amendments
XII. These By-Laws may be
amended by vote of a majority of
the members present at any annual
meeting.
236
Notes of the Society
NOTES OF THE SOCIETY
The following persons were elected corporate members of the Society
subsequent to the last published list : Miss Adelaide A. Adams, Mr. Francis
0. Allen, Rev. Frederick Aston, Prof. S. Basare, Miss Joyce Black, Dr.
Meribeth Cameron, Mr. Douglas D. Crary, Miss Dorothy Cross, Dr. S. D.
Davidson, Prof. D. H. Davis, Mr. R. M. Engberg, Mr. Nabih A. Faris,
Rabbi J. D. Folkman, Prof. A. Gotze, Miss Helen Hall, Prof. Felix Howland,
Miss Isabel Hubbard, Mr. Wilson M. Hume, Prof. Isaac Husik, Mr. Harald
William Jacobson, Hon. Kelson T. Johnson, Rev. W. P. Lemon, Prof.
Julius Lewy, Rev. Herbert G. May, Mr. William S. McCullough, Dr. Isaac
Mendelsohn, Mr. Robert Treat Paine, Jr., Mr. Pierre M. Purves, Mrs. Diana
J. Reisman, Mr. H. V. Rohrer, Prof. H. N. Rowley, Mr. Joseph A. Russell,
Rev. E. W. Seraphin, Mr. Carol E. Simcox, Rev. Victor H. Sword, Mr.
Gordon R. Taylor, Prof. S. S. Van Valkenberg, Mrs. Richard H. Webber,
and Mr. Frederick V. Winnett.
Prof. Price of Chicago, has sent in a correction to the effect that the
death of Prof. Edward Chiera occurred on June 20, 1933, and not on June
21, as stated in the report of the Corresponding Secretary.
PERSONALIA
Miss Bapsy Pavry and Dr. Jal Pavry, the daughter and son of the dis-
tinguished Parsee High Priest of Bombay, during a recent journey were
received in audience by the Shah of Persia in Teheran, by the King of
Afghanistan in Kabul, and by Signor Mussolini in Rome. Receptions were
tendered in their honor in Moscow, Teheran, and Kabul.
AEABIC MAGIC MEDICINAL BOWLS
H. Henry Spoer
New York City
The signs and symbols , 1 as well as the designs, found upon
magic bowls, although we may not be able to interpret all of them,
and although some of them may appear to us as devoid of sense or
as mere playful fancies of the engraver , 2 were, I cannot but feel,
of deepest significance to the medico-sorcerer, and had a definite,
inherent meaning, forming an essential part of the mechanism
needed for the production of the magic healing spell.
The accompanying plates represent some sections of the engrav-
ings found on tasa I, described below, and on tasa III (PL V).
The mystic devices referred to above, occur, in larger or smaller
number of various sizes and forms, on all kinds of tasat. The prin-
ciple underlying their employment is always the same, namely, to
produce a certain psychological effect upon the person who has come
for healing.
The most frequent designs are inscribed circles, single or con-
centric, or a whole chain of them, as on tasa I, or sections of
circles, or circles which cut one another. 2 ' Then there are magic
squares, differing as to the number of cells ; triangles, the sides of
which are formed by parts of the peripheries of three circles ; car-
touches, egg-shaped or otherwise. A boss may be found in the
centre of the bottom of the bowl, either with a magic square or the
Seal of Solomon on the top. This seal may also be found in other
places on the same bowl. Instead of a boss with a flat top a hemi-
sphere, divided into inscribed sections , 3 may take its place. There
is finally the “ Most Exalted Name of Seven Symbols.” These are
1 Called indiscriminately ahraf and hawatim.
* H, A. Winkler, Siegel und Charaktere ir» der Muhammedanischen
Zauberei, p. 96.
“ J. T. Reinaud, in his description of a tasa similar to one of Rehatsek's
(cf. note 25) and mine (No. V) poses the question: “Are the two discs
the sun and moon in conjunction? ” — Description des monument musulmans
du cabinet de 31. le due de Blacas, vol. II, p. 355.
a My tasa IV, astronomical, has 4 divisions, while tasa VI, of very
elaborate workmanship, has 10 divisions.
238
H. Henry Spoer
sometimes distributed in the four corners of a talisman/ or are
used to form a wafq of 7 X ? cells. 5
The Seal of Solomon is sometimes a plain pentagram or a hexa-
gram. On one of my tasat (III) there appears a very elaborate
and somewhat unusual hexagram on the top of the boss (Fig. I).
Three sides of the seal are formed by the prolongation of the final
Fig. I.
alif of Uo and the other three by that of Le., all ending in an
upward curve or hook. The corners of the hexagram are held
together, as with clamps, by the conventionalized letters ^ and j.
Underneath this seal, on the underside of the tasa, is a plain hexa-
gram. The whole design forms the phrases ydo \l “ 0 Most
Bountiful One ! ” and b “ 0 Most Powerful One ! ” The ^
is formed by the hook. Solomon’s seal is astrologically the symbol
* Al-Buni, Sams al-ma‘arif al-kubra, lith. ed. Cairo 1322 A. H.-1324 A. H.
(1904-1906 a. d.), 4 vols. bound in one, vol. Ill, 58 (This is the edition
always referred to in this article unless otherwise stated). Winkler, op.
cit., p. 95, has reproduced a heptagram from Tilimsani in which the seven
seals are distributed in the seven corners, each with the addition of a letter.
5 Al-Biini, ibid., p. 71.
Arabic Magic Bowls
239
of the sun, which explains the sun in the middle of the hexagram.®
The twelve rays of the sun may be symbolical of the twelve letters
of the Creed, Id ilah ila allah, in Arabic, which Al-Buni connects
with the number of the signs of the zodiac . 7
The importance of the circle in later Huhammedan magic may
be due, in a large measure, to Al-Bunl’s 8 description of a vision
which he had of two concentric circles of double lines, which con-
tained the Highest Name of Allah. He says : “ I was in solitude.
There appeared to me an image in a circle, and in it was the Image
of Majesty, and this is the Mightiest Name of Allah. And from it
is derived every name. And in it is the source of the Exalted Name.
As this image was implanted in my memory and heart, after the
state (in which I had been) had ceased to be, and the luminous
image had disappeared, I drew its likeness upon paper. And the
power of thought returned to me, and I said, ‘ Perhaps the Ninety
Nine Names are derived from this Name.’ ” In this drawing there
appear in the inner circle the following “ Beautiful Names of Al-
lah,” arranged in the form of a square : 'Alim ; 'Adi ; Halim ; Sari' ;
‘Aziz ; ‘Adi ; Garni' ; Muld ; Ba'it ; Musawwir ; Ghafur. To the right
of this square is the name Fa'al and to the left 'AH. Within the
square, written below one another, are the names Allah Muta'al;
As-Sabur, and to the right of these names, written perpendicularly,
occurs again the name Ghafur . 9 The importance of the circle as a
magical device is also brought out by the amulet called da'irat al-
’ihdta “ circle of enclosure .” 10
The Most High Name of Seven Symbols, sab'a hawatim or
hawdtim galgalutiya.
Although the order of the seven symbols has varied at different
* I wish to acknowledge my indebtedness to Prof. D. B. Macdonald for
the explanation of this hexagram which is similar in construction to that
published by him in the ZA. 1911, p. 267.
7 Vol. I, p. 12.
’ Vol. I, pp. 41-42. Winkler, op. cit. t reproduces this seal on p. 45. For
magic circles cf. I. Goldzieher, Zauberkreise, in Anfange zur Kultur und
Sprachgeschichte, also ZDMG. 70. A. Montgomery, Aramaic Incantation
Texts, index under “ circle in magic.”
'In Winkler’s text and in the lith. ed. by Mustapha Eff. Fahmi, Cairo
1874, there occurs to the left of these names the name Nafi'.
10 Al-Buni, vol. Ill, 58. E. Doutte, Magie et Religion dans L’Afrique du
Nord, p. 169 f.
240
H. Henry Spoer
times, the first symbol has always been the so-called Seal of Solo-
mon or an original sign which it has replaced. 11 Al-BunT, in the
Sams al-ma’arif al-Jcubra, seems to use indiscriminately — at least
the copyist — the pentagram and the hexagram, 12 while DerabI 13
uses consistently the pentagram. In the poem describing this sym-
bol Al-BunI 14 calls it the accompanying draw-
ing is however a hexagram. The corresponding sign in the Dlwan
*Ali 15 is a small circle, which, as Winkler has shown, 16 is the ori-
ginal form of the first symbol, or at least its earliest known form,
a round ha’. This seems to be borne out by a reference in the
opening words of the invocation in which Al-BunT (vol. I, p. 71),
mentioning the signs of the Exalted Name in their order, says:
“ I invoke Thee by the ha’ al-mauqufat min al-a'asam. The first
sign is therefore obviously neither a pentagram nor a hexagram,
but a ha’.
The order of the signs in the so-called poem of ‘All differs from
that found in Al-Buni. It is as follows: 1) small circle. 2) three
sticks with a bar over the top. 3) mlm. 4) something “like a
ladder.” 5) small circle. 6) ha’, connecting to the left, its tail
being bent over it like that of the warn in tasat_. or in Al-Bunffs
Name of Seven Symbols, etc. 7) the “four fingers” with a bar
across the top. The first circle is called simply hatam but the other
hatam herin, “ seal of goodness.” May not these two circles have
been in Al-Buni’s mind when he had the psychic experience of
seeing the “Picture of Majesty” in two concentric circles? An-
other figure representing the hatam is composed of two ha’, e>,
placed one above the other, upside down, so that the shanks cross.
As such it occurs in the hatam which Seh Muhammed Qanbaris
saw in a Sufi mosque. 17 The letters ha’ and wav: do not occur in it.
A symbol closely resembling this “ doubled ” ha’, appears twice on
11 Winkler, op. cit., p. 67, and the list on pp. 114 ff. On Hebrew talismans
the hexa-pentagram is found also reduced to a simple square/’ cf. M.
Schwab, Vocabulaire de I’angelologie, p. 21. The process is therefore the
reverse of that observed in connection with the Arabic hatam.
11 E. g. vol. I, pp. 69, 71.
11 Printed ed. by Huh 'All Malihl, Cairo, n. d.
14 ^ I, p. 69. Winkler’s ed. has a pentagram, p. 80.
15 Brockelmann, Geschichte der arabischen Literatur, vol. I, pp. 4.3 f _ -
Huart, Litterature arabe, 3d ed.. p. 253.
” °P- cit < PP- 56 - 135. and p. 114, No. 2 of the list.
17 Al-Buni, vol. I. p. 68.
Arabic Magic Bowls
241
the inside and once on the outside of tasa I, described below, at the
beginning of Arabic inscriptions.
On tasa III, referred to above, occurs frequently a sign which
appears to me to be a developed or conventionalized form of the
“ doubled ” ha'. It is composed of two hollow bars, crossing, so
as to form a cross with arms of equal length and five squares. It
rests on two arms in the fashion of the St. Andrew’s cross. This
sign is easily formed by the prolongation of the shanks of the
“ doubled ” hd‘. This symbol occurs frequently after the basmala
or before the word ’ a'itdu , but also in other connections, e. g. Sym-
bol, ’a'udu billahi min es-saitan ar-ragim; basmala, symbol; Sur.
112; symbol; basmala; symbol; Sur. 113, after ’alladi in v. 5
follows the symbol and also at the end of the verse. I have not
found this symbol on any of my other tdsat , nor does it occur on
those published by Reinaud and Rehatsek.
In a printed edition of Al-Buni 18 the hatam is represented by
the lam-alif V, which, as Winkler has pointed out, 19 was originally
the letter a ha’. In the y-Jl “seal of evil,” the opposite
of the sab’a hawalim , V UqqqqN, the first and last signs are actu-
ally lam-alif. 20 Al-TilimsanI 21 employs an octogram in place of
the sixth symbol, which should be hd’, while for the first one he
uses in one instance a pentagram and in another a hexagram.
Winkler 22 suggests that it takes the place of ha’. It is however
to be noted that the ha’ is also missing in the lithographed text
of Al-Buni used by Winkler, 23 and also in the Cairo text of the
Husainiya Press. As there is no substitute for the omitted symbol,
the Name, in this instance, has therefore only six signs. The
Name, as it appears in Cod. Berol. 4125 f. 76a, 24 agrees in the
first six symbols with that found in these two editions of Al-Buni,
but there are added, after the second hatam the letters ha’ and
18 Cairo, n. d. (1905), Husainiya Press, Winkler, op. ctf., p. 67, n. 5;
p. 116, No. 21.
18 P. 118, Nos. 21; 19.
20 Al-Buni, vol. I. p. 68.
11 Ibn ai-Hagg at-Tilimsam, Sumus al-’anwur v:akunu~ al-’asrar al-kubra
Cairo, ilatba‘at at-Taqaddum al-‘ilmiya, 1932; cf. in regard to this author
Winkler, p. 86, n. 4, and for the drawings of the hatam, p. 116, Nos. 17
and 18.
24 Pp. 56, 144.
22 Pp. 116 and 118, Nos. 20. 21.
24 Winkler, op. cit., p. 116, No. 19.
242
H. Henry Spoer
waw. The writer of the Cod. Berol. was evidently conscious of a
serious omission in the writing of the Name, as he found it. Con-
sidering the importance of these two letters in Muslim theology,
he added them, and thereby produced a Name of eight symbols in
which the hexagram does not take the place of ha'. On a tasa,
described by Rehatsek, 25 there appears a hexagram between the ha’
and the waw, also in this case the hexagram does not take the place
of ha’. On a bronze tasa (Y) in my possession, resembling Re-
hatsek’s on PI. I, p. 150, the Name of the Seven Symbols appears
with a hexagram as the seventh symbol instead of a ha’. This
would seem to bear out Winkler’s suggestion that the second hatam
stands for ha'. Yet I am more inclined to think that the maker
of the tasa was conscious of the fact that the Name should he
written with seven symbols 25 ‘ and not eight, which, in view of the
importance attached to the number seven in the Qur'an, (e. g. 1
verses of the fatiha Sur. 15 v. 87 ; Allah created seven heavens,
Sur. 78 v. 12; and seven earths, Sur. 65 v. 12; etc., etc.) might
be expected. He perhaps retained the Seal of Solomon because of
its great magic power, the basmala was originally written upon it,
and dropped the ha’, as the waw would anyway remind him of
HE. In Al-BunI’s second explanation of the Name of Seven
hawatim™ Allah is invoked by, among other sacred letters,
{*^*■*51 yyi “ the glorious waw,” while the ha’ is merely caRed
asytivjl P l$J) “ the split ha’.” The greater importance of the waw
seems to be impiled in the fact that in Al-Buni’s waqf of 7 X 7
cells, formed of the Name of Seven Symbols, waw always precedes
the pentagram in the six lines derived from the first. 27 The diffi-
eulty, experienced by the maker of this tasa , was probably also felt
by the writer of Cod. Par. 1216 and by Tilimsani. Both writers
retained the second hatam and omitted the ha’, thereby gaining a
name of seven symbols against the eight of the Cod. Berol. and the
tasa of Rehatsek.
15 Explanation and Facsimiles of Eight Arabic Talismanic Medicine-cups,
in the Journal of the Bombay Branch of the BAS., vol. X, PL I, p. 150,
reproduced by Winkler, p. 115, No. 15.
The Muslim sorcerer, who had united the 7 seals, was certainly
accustomed to hear of 7 seals. It was his merit to decide upon 7 signs
as the 7 symbols, which, only slightly changed, have spread over the whole
Muhammedan world.” Winkler, op. cit., p. 114.
” I ’P- 71 - * 7 I, p. 71.
Arabic Magic Bowls
243
The confusion about the form of the Most High Name is proba-
bly due to the fact that some one, at an early date, added a hatarn
to the original Name of Seven Seals to be able to form a magic
square of 8 X 8 cells. Such a square is found in Derabi. 28 It is
noteworthy that he repeats the second hatarn only in the last hori-
zontal row, which is a repetition of the first. In the remaining 6
rows the opening symbol is repeated at the end of each row, so as
to obtain rows of 8 cells.
It seems that the hexagram, to judge by Winkler’s Table, 211 is
more frequently used than the pentagram or any other of the signs
representing the hatarn.
Al-Buni 30 makes two contradictory statements as to the total
number of the signs composing the Most High Name. Thus he
says:
“Of the letters there are four from the Torah,
And four from the Gospel of Jesus, the Son of Mary,
And five from the Qur’an. In their entirety
They are useful for every creature, eloquent and dumb.
Do not fear snake, nor be afraid of a scorpion.
Nor of a lion that eometh toward thee roaring.” 31
The second passage is accompanied by the symbols:
< — +-J
There are in it six letters from the Torah, and they are 111 I ^ *
And from the Gospel there are in it ^ #
And from the Qur’an III
The six letters from the Torah are, in this order, ha’, waw and
the four perpendicular lines called “ fingers ” or “ alifs ” i. e. the
6th, 7th and 5th symbols. The number of the letters taken from
the Gospel is not mentioned, but is indicated by the two symbols,
the “ ladder ” and mini, i. e. the 4th and 3rd symbols. The letters
taken from the Qur’an are likewise indicated by their signs, the
hexagram and the three perpendicular lines with a crossline above,
t. e. the 1st and 2nd symbols. It is noteworthy that the symbol of
the “ four fingers ” is evidently regarded here as being four separate
« P. 61. ** Op. cit., pp. 115 f.
* Q Vol. I, p. 69; ed. 1874, p. 62.
"The animals mentioned here are engraved in the bottom of one of
Rehatsek’s tasat ( see note 25 ) . He identifies the third animal with a dog.
In my tasa, V resembling R’s, the figure of this animal is practically erased.
244
B. Henry Spoer
symbols. A remote age is attributed to this Name by the Imam
Abu ‘All et-Tabarsi, who reports that it was found engraved upon
a rock by 'All Ibn Abl Talib who declared it to be the Highest
Name of Allah. 32 Ewald in 1839, at a time when the knowledge
of South-Arabian inscriptions was still in its infancy, took this
statement as a historical fact and regarded the sab'a hawatim as a
Himyaritic inscription. 33 Al-BunI relates that the seven ahraf
were written upon the Gate of the Ka'ba. 34
Al-BunI’s poem describing the symbols of the Most High Name
is based upon that given in the so-called Dlwan 'All, enlarged, with
some verbal changes and a different order of some of the lines.
Derabr’s version shows similar peculiarities. 85 Al-BunI 36 says :
“ Three sticks are erected after a seal,
Over their heads something like splendour 37 is spread out ;
Then (follows) mini, blind, maimed; then a ladder,
And in its midst are two crossbars in partnership.
And four, like unto fingertips, (come) after it.
Pointing unto the good works and gather the means of
subsistance ;
And a split ha’, then a bent waw.
Like the tube of a cupper; because of the mystery it is
long-necked.
And its last (symbol) is like the first, a seal
Of five points, and they encircle the mystery.
And this is the Name of Allah, it is most majestic.
And his Names are renowned among the creatures.
And this is the Name, 0 fool, firmly believe it.
And do not doubt (it), so that thou mayest have the spirit
and the Paradise as friends.
Buduh.
The simplest form of the magic square is the buduh 38 of 3 X 3
*’ Winkler, pp. 65 f.
s * ZKM., vol. II, pp. 107 f. »# p. 61.
** Al-BunI. vol. I, p. 66. »» v 0 l. I, p. 69.
* 7 Otter copies read siham inst. of baha’.
“ For various theories as to the origin of this word and its modern use
cf. Enc. of Islam, art. Buduh , by D. B. Macdonald. Lane cites an instance
in which the buduh square, although he does not use that name, is used as
a framework for a magic ink mirror. The square has an oblong form.
Arabic Magic Bowls
245
cells. It owes its name to the fact that the letters spelling this
word occur in it. Due to al-Ghazali’s interest in it, it is also called
al-gadwal al-mutalat lil-Ghazali , 39 The four letters 6, d, u, h are
distributed in the four corners of the square. The remaining five
cells, forming a cross, contain the letters — beginning at the top of
the middle columns of cells, — ta‘, lid’ and alt/; to the right of ha'
is the letter zen and to its left girn. 40 Instead of Arabic letters
Arabic numerals, called “ Indian letters,” 41 corresponding to the
The sign for the letter A a’ is a ha’ masquqa and is found in the upper
left corner of its cell, to make room for the ink. The Modern Egyptians,
5th ed. 1871, p. 341.
'• Munqid min ed-dalal. Text and translation by C. Barbier de Meyuard,
Traduction nouvelle du Traite de Ghazzdli intitule le preservative de
Verreur, in JA. 9 (1877), p. 85.
40 For a drawing of such a square, and its use as a talisman to ease birth,
see Fr. Dieterici, Die Propadeutik der Araber, p. 43, a chapter translated
from the rasa’il of the ihwdn es-safa’. Cf. also note 38. Derabi, op. cit.,
pp. 119, 123. Doutt5, op. cit, p, 192.
11 This is probably what Al-Buni meant when he says : “ And what
concerns his word: All armies shall be put to flight (a quotation obviously
intended to be from 'All), this means, draw out the letters of these noble
names and translate them into Arabic ones, and make a icafq of the letters
in the midst of a tablet . . . ,” vol. I, p. 70. Winkler op. cit., p. 84, n. 3.
In speaking of the making of a certain talisman Al-Buni, III, p. 42, says:
“ engrave upon it 12 hindi ” which, as the accompanying drawing shows,
are 12 Arabic signs for the numeral 9. Al-Birunl, kitdb at-tafhim li awa’il
sind'at at-tangim, “The Book of Instruction in the Elements of the Art
of Astrology,” text and transl. by Ramsay Wright, London 1934, speaking
of the origin of the use of Arabic letters in place of numerals, says:
“The people selected the order of the huruf al-gummal because this was
widely diffused among the People of the Book before the time of the
Arabs” (section 116). In the next section he complains of “people outside
of the profession” (of astronomers), who wilfully put false values to s
and d. In section 118 he points out the special forms of certain letters
when used as numerals, thus g = 3 is written without a tail, to distinguish
it from
: 8. Kdf must always be written horizontieally, so as not to
resemble 1 , i. e., ^ this is the form always found upon tasat.
On the top of a of Bokhara origin, in my possession,
appears a magic square of 4 X 4 cells with the Arabic numerals for 4, 8, 1, 9.
They are so arranged as to form the sum of 22, whether added horizontally,
perpendicularly or diagonally. The second horizontal row is like the first
one read backwards. For description and illustration see the article by
Mrs. H. H. Spoer (A. M. Goodrich-Freer) , “Notes on some Hebrew
246
H. Henry Spoer
numerical value of the Arabic letters, are also used. Two such
squares occur on my tasa V, they are called hatam abi sa'id * 2 The
total sum of the numerals, whether added horizontally, perpendi-
cularly or diagonally, is always the same, 15. The numerals in the
four corners, 2, 4, 6, 8, are called while the
uneven numbers, in the other cells, 9, 5, 1 and 7, 3, are called
AftoM csjljyLo. 43 The word buduh. is used in a good sense,
while the word composed of four of the remaining letters,
is used in a bad sense. 44 Gaber, 44 * on the reputed evidence of
Apollonius ( Balinus ), says that the buduh square, of which he
gives a drawing, but does not use the name, is a magic tablet to
assist women in an otherwise difficult childbirth. If the writing
in question is really Gaber’s we have here the earliest known repre-
sentation of a buduh square. 44 "
On tasa I (Fig. II ) , there occurs in a circle an irregular buduh
square of 4 X 4 cells. 43 The four letters are distributed in con-
secutive order in the cells of the first horizontal row and serve as
the base for the remainder. There is no common numerical value
to the added numbers in either the diagonal or perpendicular cells,
nor does there seem to be any stereotyped arrangement for the
order in which the letters are placed, except that those in the third
horizontal row form the word buduh. written in the reversed order.
ma kus, to be read from left to right. This same arrangement
occurs also in nin-buduh squares (Fig. II). The same phenomenon
is referred to by Doutte, op. cit ., p. 198, quoting Ibn al-Hagg,
Amulets,” in Papers and Transactions of the Jubilee Congress of the Folk
Lore Society, London, p. 298, PI. V.
44 JA., 4ieme serie, vol. XII, p. 522.
41 JA., XII, p. 523.
44 Ibid.
( *“ 6aber ben Saivan al-’Azdl at-TusI as-$ufi : Utah al-muwdzin as-saghir,
“ The Book of Little Balances,” ed. and transl. by Berthelot and Houdas in
La Chimie au iloyen Age, vol. Ill, pp. ^ A and 150. Cf. n. 40.
44b W. Ahrens. “ Studien iiber d. mag. Quadrate d. Araber,” in Der Islam
vol. VII, p. 18". P. Kraus, art. “Djabir,” in the Suppl. of the Enc. of Islam
points out that the writings, attributed to an imaginary Djabir, are the
work of a compiler whose name according to Aba Sulaiman al-Mantiki is
al-5asan b. al-Nakad al-Uawsill. The terminus ante quern being' some-
where about 330 a. H.-941/2 a. d.
op" cit., p! rn m ’’ VoL IV ' PP ' 4 ’ 117 : ed - 1874, vo1 - PP- 4 - S8 - *»*«.
Arabic Magic Bowls
247
Sumus al- Anwar, p. 57, in connection with the seven “ names of
the moon.” For instance, instead of Miha’il the name appears as
Li’ahim, etc.; cf. also Winkler, op. cit., p. 12, n. 2.
The numerical value of the letters of squares of 4 X 4 cells,
other than buduh squares, when added horizontally, perpendicu-
larly or diagonally is not always the same. For instance, the nu-
I. II. Ill Magic Squares inside of Bowl.
io
E
J
wJ
n
I
I
~ii
n
i
C-J
r.
>
T>
>
E 1
J
it
J
»-J
z.
L3
L
J
a
L_J
T>
t\
C3
J
z
z
1
cs
Cent reef i
a
CLrOH*lct CtTL'CrC*
ir ^iTnnXnaiAHi
Fig. II.
merical value of the letters of square III on Fig. II is 52 when
added horizontally or perpendicularly, while diagonally the sum is
36 and 6 respectively. A peculiarity of this square is that the
diagonal from left to right is composed of the four L .
By the insertion of L after <__* and j after ^ a magic square of
6X6 cells is formed. 48 I do not know whether such a one occurs
on tasat.
The magic square of 3 X 3 cells, the smallest of the squares, is
“ Al-Bfinl, vol. IV, 118; Douttfi, ibid., p. 235.
248
H. Henry Spoer
associated with Saturn, the remotest of the seven planets. Its
sacred numbers are 3, 9, 15, 45. The square of 4 X 4 cells is
Jupiter’s, its sacred numbers are 4, 16, 34, 136. 47
Tasa I.
The bronze bowl described here has a diameter of 6 inches, a
depth of 1%. In the centre is a boss % inch high, 2 inches wide
Interior of Bowl.
a
Alaj/t Inscription on. Him. , l % ota i .
’’He >-.0 pUe-,
' a h Sv \ r ,, m r'nir 4 -* u nr i Ac;, UAH
6
Pig. III.
at the bottom, iy 2 at the top (Fig. III). The rim of the bowl is
about y s of an inch wide. All details of the inscriptions and orna-
JJ ‘L W „ AhrenS ’ 0P ' Cit " T ° ! - VII > PP- 198 . 201 f. also Die Mag. Quadrate
Al-Buni 8 by the same author, in vol. XII.
Arabic Magic Bowls
249
mentations etc. are carefully executed. Much usage has almost
effaced the inscriptions near and in the bottom of the bowl.
The Interior of the tasa.
There are eight lines of magic signs on the top of the rim, di-
vided by short lines ending at both ends in a hook, one pointing
upward and the other downward (Fig. Illb).
On the inner edge of the tasa, encircling it, are the words of
Sur. 20 vv. 3 to 7 engraved. The beginning of this inscription is
indicated by a symbol resembling the “ doubled ” ha'. Just below,
and concentric with this inscription, is a large circle which is part
of a system of skilfully connected and inscribed circles, which fill
the interior of the tasa. These circles, formed of double lines, a
sort of ribbon % inch wide, wind in and out, having neither a
visible beginning nor an end. The idea is perhaps that all the
virtues and graces contained in and conveyed by them are gathered
in one indivisible whole, symbolical of the Unity of Allah, cf. Sur.
112. This “ribbon” forms 6 circles of 2 inches in diameter, they
appear as if hanging from the large circle. Three of them con-
tain inscriptions, the other three, alternating with them, have each,
in the middle, a magic square of 4 X 4 cells (Fig. II). The
squares are formed of double lines and placed in such a position
that the lower corners point to the centre of the tasa. They are
surrounded by inscriptions. One of the squares is a buduh . The
6 circles are connected by means of loops, smaller circles, each con-
taining two or three magic signs. The spaces, above and below the
connecting loop, resemble, roughly, cones. The upper ones are
filled with four lines of magic signs and the lower with three
(Figs. Ill, IV). Finally, this ribbon forms a circle in the bottom
of the tasa, having a diameter of 2 1 /, inches. In the middle is the
round boss ; on its flat top is a magic square, with letters, of 4 X 4
cells (Fig. III). The sloping side of the boss is inscribed with
magic signs (Fig. lib).
The Exterior of the tasa.
Encircling the tasa, just below the rim, is the famous 'ayatu l-
kursi, Sur. 2. v. 256. Its last two words are found in the cartouche
following upon the name al-hamal, aries, a sign of the zodiac,
falalc al-burug, indicating the beginning of the order in which to
250
H. Henry Spoer
read the tdsa. Below the Throne Verse are twelve egg-shaped 4 ®
cartouches (Fig. Va), each preceded by the name of one of the
signs of the zodiac . 49 These names appear in the little triangular
spaces formed at the top by the joining of two cartouches and the
Upper Section. Circle. Lower Section.
/V-* 5
/V?*
At-S
N? 6
JH'
y\pi=>nr
UUP
i?i
<\ HI
...ni
A IIUIl
•7>MF6t>1C c
“■Mr t=a1/\9i'
iri=ur
n
i • •
ii ..r ,i.
‘■"nyvuiir taHiiK
• MKtaimn 1
* * • • %
1AI
• • ♦
....Ull A|
iPt=a2f*'
<nih
vu
II
a41
'lltal.lAr
TAl
A*
aIMI
J\Af"
Fig. IV.
circle above them. Six of the cartouches are inscribed with verses
from the Qur'an, while the remaining six, alternating with them,
contain each six lines of magic signs interspersed with letters and
what are evidently, numerals.
The Cartouches.
In the cartouche preceded by :
For the ° f C ° menienCe 1 ^ drawn the cartouches in straight
“On another tdsa (IV) the si™, u, „ ..
images, cf. note 3. ^ EC are re P res ^ted by
Arabic Magic Bowls 251
1 ) Al-hamal, aries, are, besides the last two words of the Throne
Verse, Sur. 97. w. 1. 2.
2) At-tor ( tasa has sor) , tanrus, is a magic inscription. In it
occur the letters a, k, h, £, n, t.
3) Al-gozd , gemini, are Sur. 97. w. 3. 4 and part of v. 5.
Magio Inscriptions on the Outside and Bottom of Bowl.
6
Fig. V.
4) As-sar atari, cancer, is a magic inscr. with the letters a, k, d,
t, n, h, m.
5) Al-asad, leo, are the remainder of Sur. 97. v. 5, and Sur.
110. w. 1, 2 to ft dini.
6) As-sunbule, virgo (lit: ear of wheat), is a magic inscr. with
the letters a, k, t, 1, m, f (or q), h, t.
7) Al-mlzan, libra, are the remainder of Sur. 110. v. 2 with the
addition of al-qaiyum “the Self-subsistent,” the basmala and the
letters wdw and alif, the beginning of wal-asri “ by the afternoon,”
Sur. 103. v. 1, continued in No. 9, al-qaus.
252
H. Henry Spoer
8) Al-aqrab, Scorpio, is a magic inscr. with the letters a, d, k,
h, t, n, m.
9) Al-qauSj Sagittarius, is Sur. 103, cf. No. 7, adding yd hay.
Tasa has ‘asr inst. of 'asr.
10) Al-gadi, capricornus, is a magic inscr. with the letters a, k.
f, h, 1, m, n.
11) Ad-dalu, aquarius, are the basmala and Sur. 61. v. 13
beginning with nasrun minallahi “help from God,” closing with
0 Muhammed ! 0 'All, her ed-din “ Best of the religion ! ”
12) Al-hut, pisces, is a magic inscr. with the letters a, k, h, t,
n, d, 1.
Below the cartouches appears a circular magic inscription con-
taining the letters a, d, d, f, k, 1, m, n, h. The letter ia’ is found
only on the rim, and ' ayin only in the cartouche tt-tdr. All the
other letters mentioned occur several times. It is noteworthy that
the leaf , used in magic inscriptions, is always the “ horizontal ” one
of Al-Biruni. 41 It does not occur in the non-magic inscriptions.
Kdf is found in every line of the cartouches and once in every line
of the upper triangular spaces between the circles, but never in the
lower ones (PI. Ia).
The frequent occurrence of kdf may be accounted for by the
fact that great power is attributed to its inherent qualities. It
does not only cure the milt, if written four times on a vessel, but
produces union and friendship, if written 12 times on a bronze
vessel. By it “Allah causes His love to dwell in the hearts of His
creatures. A powerful talisman is formed by four “ horizontal ”
kdf, united two by two and laid across one another. In the angles,
thus formed, the names of the angels Gabra’il, Miha‘11, 'Uzra’Il and
Israfafil are written. 50 The kaf stands probably for al-Kdfi “ the
Sufficient One ? cf. Sur. XXXIX. 37, 'alaisa allahu bikafin
abdahu . l\e may perhaps see in the hooked lines on the rim of
the tasa connected letters kdf. such as found in the kdf talisman.
The letter hd has always the form a, never the round form, which
is used for the numeral five.
Some of the magic signs resemble the numerals 1, 2, 3, 4 6 8
and 9. corresponding to the letters a. b, g, d, w, h, and t. Accord-
ing to the ilm al-huruf “ the science of letters ” almost any of the
80 Al-Bunl, III, p. 43.
Canaan, op, cit, p. 108.
For a drawing of the Kaf amulet see also T.
Arabic Magic Bowls
253
letters of the alphabet may be regarded as the initial of an Attri-
bute or Excellent Name of Allah, or as that of a saint. 31 Al-Bunl
describes the essences of the letters of the alphabet. 52
The magic letters are sometimes so arranged as to form sen-
tences or words. For the most part however they seem to be just
magic signs, or must be regarded as such, until a key for the solu-
tion of the mystery which surrounds them is found. P. Casanova 53
discovered one for one particular inscription, but it is not of gen-
eral application.
One sign, the meaning of which I cannot explain, and which I
have not found elsewhere, is of frequent occurrence on this tasa.
It resembles the Arabic figure for eight with a hook at the top on
the left, turned upward. Another very frequent sign resembles a
Greek capital 4>, without the perpendicular line extending beyond
the circle at the top (cf. Plates I. II. IV.). This sign is really
the letter ha’, as is proved by the word ^s> on tasa II. The ha’ is
exactly like this sign, and the yd' is a mere twist to the left at the
end of the perpendicular line.
The beginning of the inscription, which encircles the interior of
the tasa near the edge, is prefixed by the “ doubled ” ha’, referred to
above. It opens with the basmala and continues, “ in the Name of
Allah, in the Name of Him who causes all (mankind) to return (to
Him), the Lord of the future and present world. There is neither
a superior to Him nor one who brings Him to an end. His are
what is in the high heavens etc.” (Sur. 20. w. 5-7.)
The inscriptions in the circles, or medals, are unfortunately not
well preserved. The opening lines contain for the most part “ Ex-
cellent Names,” Sur. 20. v. 7, or sifat , of Allah, what follows is too
fragmentary to yield any connected information, so that neither
date nor original ownership can be determined, if at all mentioned
in the now illegible parts of the inscriptions. The inscription
around the boss begins with al-'uyun wa ... , the next few words
are doubtful, but the closing words, are, wa nur en-nahar wa daw'
al-qamr wa su'd' as-sams. The last word, following upon sams, is
doubtful.
61 E. Rehatsek, op. cit., p. 150.
** Op. cit., I, pp. 35 ff. ; III, pp. 35 ff.
" “ Alphabets magiques arabes,” in JA., 1922, pp. 260 ff.
2
254
H. Henry Spoer
II.
Bronze tasa of as-Sultan al-Malik al-Mansur ’Asad ed-Din Sirkiih,
570AH.
This tasa has a diameter of 7 y 2 inches and a depth of 2%.
Upon it are no magic squares, and it lacks most of the symbols
generally found on tcisat. The only Arabic inscription is found on
the outside, just below the edge, encircling the tasa. Below the
inscription is a mystic ornamentation, consisting of a large num-
ber of semi-circles, crossing each other in such a manner as to form,
together with the top line, 13 small triangular segments of curved
lines. Below these are two rows, each of 14 lozenge-shaped four-
cornered fields, formed by the intersecting lines of the circles. The
lower of these two rows is interspersed with 13 cone-shaped divi-
sions. These 54 divisions probably represent a conventionalized
magic square. All the divisions are filled with small magic signs
resembling numerals and letters. Frequent among these are the
ha masquq, lam, the round ha' and a sign resembling an omega
closed at the top. In the lower point of one of the large squares
occurs a gim. In the circular magic inscription upon which the
semi-circles rest occurs the horizontal M/. 54 All the signs of this
inscription are large. Concentric with it are traces of at least six
more magic inscriptions of small size letters.
The Interior of the tasa.
A magic inscription, of small signs, runs along the top. In it
occur several horizontal Mf. The decoration below this inscription
is similar to that on the outside. As there are only nine semi-
circles, the divisions formed bv them are fewer and larger. At
the top of the tasa are nine triangular segments, formed in the
same manner as the corresponding ones on the outside. There are
18 large fields of a triangular form and nine, smaller than these,
of a conical form. All the lines are naturally curved. All the divi-
sions are filled with magic signs and letters.' In 16 of the 18 large
sections occurs the horizontal kaf, in most of them at least three
times, never less th an twice. It may occur oftener, as well as in
L.I. note 41.
talluTVJ F f E V AUgU3t 2Dd ’ U74 - Wttstenfeld-MaMer: VergleitHungs-
tabellen, 2nd ed. For another date for Sirkuh, cf Lane Poole Muh
Arabic Magic Bowls
255
the remaining two sections, but the thick solder of mended places
and heavy tinning, hard to remove, have covered some parts of
the bowl where it was injured. This tasa must have been much in
demand during the many centuries of its existence, for whatever
was below these sections has practically disappeared by much
rubbing.
1) lb) 1)
yj'CU-oJ I <-A\LoJ I ^ I jJ <_s I
* ‘ 2) . ' [
. ^ 3) ^
tp-wc <)AjL~oJl
cJ^U^ aWlj dS^SL^ij A~sJI
ijOi^Sj
ajkJlj Cr -*D^ «-r-^b
D3) ' 7)
jjUl kl®U; J^U> Ji};
3)' , 3) ^ Id)
3) Id)
^Ui aUI ^ib i£y& <«U
The words in this inscription are, for the most part, divided, and the
parts are placed above one another, as is done in ornamental Arabic
inscriptions. The first part of the words is generally in bold characters,
while the remainder is mostly of very small letters, difficult to decipher.
1) Original diacritical points. — lb) Orig. diac. points on ^ — 1c) Orig.
d. p. on — Id) Orig. d. p. on i _j > . — 2) Orig. shedde. — 3) Orig. vowel. —
4) Instead of the word ** proven ” is found on some tasdt, e. g.
Reinaud, op. cit., vol. 11.310; Rehatsek, op. cit., vol. XIV. 204. — 5 ) Omit . —
6 Orig. sukun. — 7) Upper line of ^ is not engraved.
Translation.
“ It was prepared and carved while the moon was in the scor-
pion, by order of as-Sultan al-Malik al-Mansur ’Asad ed-Dln
Sirkuh, in the year 5?0. 56 This blessed tdsa (protects) against all
s * Bokhan reports, on the authority of al-’Aswad, a hadith. which he
claimed to have received from 'Aisha, in which Muhammed permits the
use of charms or spells, in case of stings by snakes or scorpions. But
the dfjy was, according to 'Abd el-' Aziz, on the authority of 'Aisha, an
invocation to Cod for healing; cf. Sahih, Constantinople ed., Part vii, p. 24.
256
H. Henry Spoer
poisons. In it are gathered notable (or : well tried) benefits, such
as are against the sting of the snake and scorpion. 57 And against the
fever, the pain of parturition (of women)’ and the mare, and the
(bad) milk of nursing women. Against the bite of a (mad) dog.
Against bowel complaint and colic, and against hemicrancy and
plagues, against fever of the liver and milt. Against power and
magic spells. Against pain of the heart. Against the evil eye and
blear-eyedness, against inflamed eyes and cold in the head. Against
the whitlow, fluxes, flatulence, piles and against cold humour. It
is for the stopping of a haemorrhage, and for all diseases and com-
plaints. And he who has been stung, or his messenger, shall drink
out of it, and he will be cured by the permission of God the Most
High.”
It is generally accepted that “Asad ed-D!n Sirkuh, uncle of Salah
ed-Din, died in Egypt 564 AH., but, according to the inscription
on this tasa, he was still alive in 510 AH. The designation as
Sultan is surprising as Sirkuh was not an independent prince.
However this title was at times bestowed upon the highest official
as a laqab (for references see Enc. of Is. art. Sultan) before it
became the sovereign title of the ruler of the country. The domi-
neering personality of Sirkuh and his quasi independent position
i n Eg) pt might have readily suggested to an admiring or overawed
subject the appropriateness of bestowing upon him the laqab Sul-
tan. A not infrequent procedure in the Near East in similar cases
for very personal reasons.
It is noteworthy that it is not necessary for the sick person to
drink from the bowl, but that he will equally benefit by its healing
qualities if his messenger drink from it in his stead. The liquid to
be used is according to an inscription on a tasa of the year 463 AH
(published by Eehatsek, op. cit., vol. XIV, pp. 205 ff.), “whatever
of water, oil or milk may be ready at hand.”
the of 1 U 6 “'a ^ ar “ S “ CaS6S of illness is P ro b a bly based on
end in th f invocati ° D generally finds a place at the
CODCentr f ed of U idn raibina, which has also the authority
T r f SImilar ' AbU Sa ‘ id el - KiudrI reports a hadul
... A ' PP- which shows that the Proohet was
not without a sense of humor. In answer to the question of some of tie
ashab, who had cured the seh of a certain tribe, who had been bitten by a
scorpion, by the recitation of the first Surah, whether they milt accept
and reserve a portion for me.” e Mem i
ON THE ORIGIN OF CERTAIN COPTIC VERBAL FORMS
William F. Edgerton
University of Chicago
I. The First Perfect
A very few early texts in several different Coptic dialects
(Sahidic, Sub-Akhmimic, Fayumic and one or more of the less-
known idioms which are subsumed under the label “ Middle
Egyptian”) 1 make use of a verbal auxiliary identical with the
First Perfect in meaning, and also in form except that it shows
an initial h which the First Perfect lacks. Owing to the paucity
of materials, it is impossible to construct a complete paradigm of
this early Coptic auxiliary, even when we combine all of the forms
found in different dialects. Table 1 gives all of the forms which
I have been able to find, with symbols indicating the dialect or
dialects in which each form appears ; the complete paradigm of the
First Perfect is added for comparison. 2 All forms included in the
table are taken from passages where the meaning is certain.
1st a.
2nd m. a.
2nd f . a.
Table 1
Early form
with h
hai- (S, F, M)
hak- (M)
Normal form of
First Perfect
ai-
ak-
are- ( S, B )
or- (S, A, A,)
al- (F)
1 1 use the symbol M to designate the last named group of Coptic idioms,
and M. Eg. for the language discussed in Gunn’s Studies in Egyptian Syntax
and Gardiner’s Egyptian Grammar ; further, d. for the demotic script, and
D. for the successive forms of the Egyptian language which were written
in that script. The other abbreviations used in this article are the familiar
ones; thus A, for Sub-Akhmimic. Note that if, as used here, does not
include F.
* The existence of the early paradigm with initial h was first pointed out
by Crum, together with its correct derivation from D. w\h: AZ 36 (1898),
140. See further Spiegelberg, OLZ 7 (1904), 199; Sethe, AZ 52 (1914),
112-116; Crum, JEA 13 (1927), 21 (best references to the sources). — The
related relative formation etah- “who has (done)” was first pointed out
by Ludwig Stern, AZ 24 (1886), 133, with a series of etymological remarks
which come astonishingly close to the truth for that early day.
357
258
William F. Edgerton
Early form
Normal form of
with h
First Perfect
3rd m. s.
haf- (F,M)
af-
3rd f. s.
kas- (S)
as-
1st pi.
han- (M)
an-
2nd pi.
atetn- (S, A, A,)
ateten- ( F, B )
3rd pi.
hau- (P, M)
au-
Before noun subject
ha- (A„ F)
Or
Since the perfect tense with initial h is in any case an early
phenomenon in the history of the Coptic language, and since, as
we shall see, it is derived from a form which occurs in Ptolemaic
and Roman Demotic, we should expect to find it well represented
in Old Coptic. I have found only one example : JygA C5NC in the
magical text Paris L, line 35, which doubtless represents haf sens,
“ he asked her ”. 3
It is also rather surprising to find no Akhmimic form in the
paradigm, since Akhmimic in many respects is the most archaic of
the Coptic dialects. However, the A perfect relative formative
etah-, “who has (done)”, is obviously related.
Of the two manuscripts which were practically our only sources
for A 2 , the Gospel of John does not use our form at all; while the
Acts of Paul uses it only before noun subject, but uses it there
regularly with only two exceptions. 4 Hasty search in Polotsky,
Manichaische Homilien (1934), fails to reveal any example.
The fact that no Bohairic example has been found, may be due
to the lack of early materials in B.
There is perhaps no text which uses our form with h consistently,
to the exclusion of the normal First Perfect without h. The fact
that both forms occur side by side is consistent with the behavior
of the consonant h in Coptic manuscripts generally: “Weakness
or absence of h is undoubtedly a general tendency, not only in
Sahidic, but also in other dialects.” 5 This is particularly true of
h < Egyptian h. e If our auxiliary with initial h had been known
* For the text, see Erman. AZ 21
danz, Pap. graecae mag., I, p. 70 .
familiar haf- was suggested, with
margin of his copy of -iZ 38, p. 91
See Chaine. Z,es dialectes coptes
1 Worrell, Coptic Sounds, p. 110.
"Sethe, Yerbum, I, § 250,
(1883)^, 100 = Georg Moller in Preisen-
That .V K may represent the now more
some hesitation, by Spiegelberg on the
(now in my possession).
assioutiques A" (1934), p. 69.
Coptic Verbal Forms
259
to scholars before any etymology for the First Perfect had been
proposed, I do not think the identity of the two forms would ever
have been questioned. Unfortunately the First Perfect without h
looks like a derivative of the L. Eg.-D. auxiliary verb “ to do ”,
which is known to have lost its r in certain forms long before
Coptic times. This etymology was proposed at least as long ago as
1880, T and formed a part of the common fund of Egyptological
belief before the synonymous form with initial h was discovered;
apparently it remains a part of that common fund today, 8 though
at the cost of separating two Coptic forms which, to my mind, are
obviously one and the same.
The derivation of the perfect auxiliary with initial h is not dis-
puted: it comes from the verb wlh, one of whose many meanings
7 Stern, Koptische Grammatik, § 374. Six years later Stern had seen his
error: see above, footnote 2. His Coptic grammar remained, and still
remains, an indispensable tool, constantly in the hand of every Copticist;
but the paragraph in the Zeitschrift seems to have passed unnoticed.
8 The derivation of the First Perfect from some form of the verb iry
“to do” is maintained by Crum, Coptic Dictionary, Part I (1929), p. 1;
Erman, Neudgyptische Grammatik 2 (1933), § 545; Spiegelberg, Demotische
Grammatik (1925), § 181; Till, Akhmimisch-Koptische Grammatik (1928),
§ 132a and Koptische Dialekt grammatik (1931), p. 54; I accepted this
derivation and taught it to my students until recently, and I am not aware
that anyone now living is on record against it. The derivation from wlh,
“ to finish ”, which I am advocating in the present article, was proposed
by Spiegelberg in OLZ 7 (1904), 199 and 25 (1922), 399, note 3; also by
Sottas, P. d&rn, de Lille (1921), p. 38 and in greater detail in Revue
egyptologique, N. S., vol. 2, fasc. 3-4 (1924), 13-16; but Spiegelberg after-
wards withdrew his support from it, Dem. Gr., § 188 Anm. Both Spiegel-
berg and Sottas rightly pointed out that Heinrich Brugsch had discerned
the historical relation between the Demotic and Coptic forms; they were
unaware that Stern had made the discovery even before Brugsch (see
above, footnote 2). Stern and Brugsch, like several more recent writers,
excusably misread d. w\h as the face -hieroglyph hr (which Brugsch further
mistransliterated ha, the two mistakes serving in some degree to cancel
one another). See also Griffith, Stories of the High Priests, pp. 107-108;
Griffith and Thompson, Demotic Magical Papyrus, p. 30 (note on line 24) ;
Griffith, Catalogue of the Demotic Papyri in the John Rylands Library,
vol. 3, p. 224, note 14. — A derivation of the First Perfect from L. Eg.
iw s f [hr) sdm was proposed by Sethe in ZDMG 79 (1925), 292; this was
also included in the view of Stern, who wrongly supposed that the d. form
which we now read w\hzf sdm could be derived from iw,f hr sdm . — The
excellent remarks of Hess, Der demotische Teil der dreisprachigen Inschrift
von Rosette (1902), pp. 51 and 53, unfortunately escaped my notice until
this article was in type.
260
William F. Edgerton
is “ to finish This verb is often used in Ptolemaic and Roman
Demotic as an auxiliary with perfect or pluperfect meaning, often
(but by no means always) with the added connotation “ already ”,
for example, mdt nbt r-dd't wlh'y ir=w n-t dr*w, “all things
which you have said, I have (now, already) done them for you,
all of them 5 ’. 9 It occurs ten times in the Magical Papyrus of
London and Leyden, 10 and seems there (as often in earlier texts)
to be a precise equivalent of the Coptic First Perfect.
Both Spiegelberg and Sottas have pointed out that the royal
name Aprils (from wlh ib pi R, the vulgar equivalent of wlh ib R)
presents an admirable phonetic parallel to afsotm, “ he has heard ”,
from wlh-f sdm, “ he finished hearing Other, less close, phonetic
parallels, are the personal names Hxnro^paTrj^, Xaxov^wwt?, from
'nh pi hrd, 'nh*f n Hns.
A detail tending to support the derivation of afsotm from wlh*f
sdm is the coincidence between the d. variant r-wlh*f sdm (i. e., with
a prothetie vowel in front of wlh*f )« and the variant eafsotm of
the Coptic First Perfect. 1 ' So long as this was supposed to be the
circumstantial e-, its occurrence here was anomalous. It is now
seen to have quite a different origin, being probably a remnant of
the first syllable of *welhdfsdtm . 1 - 3
Other Coptic derivatives of the auxiliary wlh, such as the very
interesting Sahidic forms collected by Crum, Monastery of Epi-
phanius, II, p. 291, no. 544, note 3, are not discussed here since
they have no direct bearing on the etymology of the First Perfect.
AH forms of this auxiliary, in Coptic as well as in Demotic, are
restricted to perfect or pluperfect meaning. 11
F ° r thiS aUXiliary in genera1 ’ see Spiegelberg, Dem.
10 See t he glo 9 sar y of Griffith and Thompson, no. 592; their reading
. ( • ) , which Thompson has now abandoned (A Family Archive from
S*ut, glossary, no. 83) led Sottas log cit n mi a ’
... ,, ' cu > P- 16 ) to the erroneous con-
clusion that the auxiliary w \h does not occur in the Magical Papyrus.
Its absence from that text would be hard to explain
* •***••* ° lz “•••».
11 Steindorff, Kopt. Gr ., f 328.
OthJtl h 8 ° meti r S ° CCUrS iD front of *«- remains unexplained.
Otter apparently anomalous examples of e- introducing independent state-
A.-K. (h-* U41k- re at they may perhapS be disregarded ; but see TiU,
'‘The evidence for this is overwhelming, and the isolated F fragment of
Coptic Verbal Forms
261
All forms of the First Perfect, in all dialects, appear, therefore,
to be perfectly normal derivatives of the sdm*f form of wlh- with
the single exception of the second person feminine singular, which
is are- in B and generally in S, al- in F, ar- in A, A 2 , and some-
times in S. The r or l of these forms cannot have originated in
the sdm*f form of wlh ; its probable source will be discussed in the
third part of this paper.
II. The Second Present and the Circumstantial
Anyone who begins the study of Coptic through the Sahidic
dialect must wonder why the Second Present and the Circum-
stantial are treated as two distinct tenses ; 15 for in that dialect
the two are morphologically identical and differ only syntactically,
the Second Present being used only in main clauses 18 and the
Circumstantial only in subordinate ones . 17 Semantically, the Second
Present represents time which is absolutely present, and the Cir-
cumstantial, time which is present relatively to the main clause on
Job xxx, 9 ( Coptica , III, p. 29) alleged as an exception by Sethe apud
Crum, JEA 13 (1927), 21, note 4, has to be interpreted accordingly:
teni l de hai$[aap neu njukithara [. . (?)ou]<5 anak haug[o nsoi ] means
“ Now I have become for them a song, and they have gossiped about me ”,
even though this is not a precise translation of the Greek (it happens,
perhaps by a mere coincidence, to be a possible rendering of the Hebrew
tenses, as my colleague Prof. W. A. Irwin assures me) ; note, further, that
the next clause (verse 10) uses past tenses both in Greek and in Sahidic. —
That the forms translated as present by Erman in AZ 44 (1907), 113 are
all really past, is now generally recognised.
1 ‘ They are actually treated as one by Steindorff, Kurzer Airiss der kopt.
Or. (1921), §71. This was doubtless meant only as a simplification for
beginners, not as a retraction of the opinion which he had indicated in
Kopt. Or. (1904), §286, Anm. The same explanation perhaps applies to
his treatment of the Third Future in S as a single tense.
It seems to me improbable that the Second Present could be used in
protasis, as stated by Steindorff, K. Gr. (1904), § 481 and Till, A.-K. Or.,
§ 220; all examples are probably to be treated as Circumstantial, as is
done by Mallon, Gr. copte (1926), § 388 and Chaine, Elements de gr.
diolectale copte, § 920. The only apparent exception known to me is
atetnsotme, “if you hear,” quoted by Till from Zach. vi, 15 (A, ed.
Bouriant ) , where Till himself very properly questions the text.
17 A further syntactic difference will probably be found to be that the
Second Present can only be negatived with (n-) ... on, and the Circum-
stantial only with -tmr (-item,-). See Steindorff, K. Or., §§ 459, 482;
Stern, K. Or., §§390, 452; Mallon, Gr. copte, §§ 237.3, 256.
262 William F. Edgerton
which it depends. The whole distinction, in Sahidic, seems to lack
empirical reality.
In A 2 , the situation is the same as in S. In A, F and B the
syntactic difference is accompanied by a morphological one, for in
these three dialects the Second Present begins with the vowel a
while the Circumstantial begins (as in S and A 2 ) with e. In no
dialect is there any consonantal difference between the two. Table
2 exhibits all forms of both tenses in the five adequately known
dialects. For a reason which will appear later, the forms of the
Negative Present of Custom are also tabulated here for comparison,
but without their characteristic initial consonants ( mp in B, m in
the other dialects).
Table 2
Circumstantial
Second Present
Negative Present of Custom,
omitting
its initial conso-
nants (mp in B, m in S, A, A a
and F)
(all dialects.
Sahidic,
Akhmimie,
Sahidic,
Akhmimie,
except as
Sub-
Fayumic,
Fayumie
Sub -Akhmimie,
specified )
Akhmimic
Bohairic
Bohairic
1st 8.
ei-
ei-
av-
-et-
-ai-
2nd m. a.
ek-
ek-
ak-
-ek-
-ak-
2nd f. a.
ere- ( S, A, A,, B )
ere-
are- (A, B)
-ere- (S)
-are-
ele- (F)
ale- (F)
-ele- (F)
3rd m. 8.
e f-
ef-
af-
-ef-
-af-
3rd f. a.
es-
€8-
as-
-es-
-03-
1st pi.
en-
en-
an-
-en-
-an-
2nd pi.
etetn- (S, A, A,)
etetn -
atetn- (A)
-etetn- (S)
- atetn - (A, A*)
eteten- (F)
ateten- (F)
-eteten- (F) -areten- (B)
ereten- (B)
areten- (B)
3rd pi.
eu-
ev-
au-
-eu-
-au-
Before noun
subject
ere- ( S, A„ B )
er e-
are- (B)
-ere- (S)
-a re- ( A,, B, A
usually)
ele- (F)
ale- (F)
-ele- (F)
-a- (A less
e- (A)
a- (A)
often)
The
relation shown
in the
above table
between
the Second
Present and the Circumstantial may be explained historically in
either of two waj s . either the distinction between these two tenses
is an ancient one which has been lost in S and A 2 , or it is a more
recent one which developed in A, F and B after their separation
from S and A 2 . Although we possess an almost continuous series
Coptic Verbal Forms
263
of linguistic monuments going back more than three thousand years
before the date of the earliest known Coptic texts and including,
presumably, texts representative of all of the Coptic dialects in
pre-Coptic forms, yet the nature of hieroglyphic, hieratic and
demotic writing makes any effort to sort the texts according to
dialects extremely difficult; I shall say nothing further here about
this method of investigation. Another method, which Eomance
philologists are applying with great success to the data embodied
in the linguistic atlases of France and Italy, starts from the geo-
graphical distribution of many specific phenomena at a single
moment of time: this method is hampered in the case of Coptic
by the twin facts that all of the Coptic dialects are now dead and
that their geographical distribution, when they were all living, is
subject to grave doubts. In spite of these difficulties, some progress
has been made in studying the historical interrelations of the
dialects. 18 Approaching our problem from this angle, I think it
may be said that a distinction which exists in A, F and B but not
in S or A 2 , is more probably an ancient than a recent one.
If the distinction is ancient, in the sense of having once existed
in the ancestral forms of S and A 2 as well as in those of A, F and B,
then our inability to distinguish dialects need not prevent us from
distinguishing these two tenses in pre-Coptic forms of the Egyptian
language: if there were two Egyptian tense-forms corresponding
to the Coptic Second Present and Circumstantial respectively, there
is at least a reasonable chance that the two may differ observably in
Egyptian writing.
There are in fact, as has long been known, two etymologically
distinct forms of expression in Egyptian which offer themselves for
study here :
(1) The Middle Egyptian iw*f hr sdm, literally “he is upon
hearing,” which lost its preposition hr “ upon ”, becoming iw'f sdm
in L. Eg.; and M. Eg. iw*f sdm(w), literally “he is (in the con-
dition of having been) heard.” In L. Eg. these two forms have
become identical except that the one uses the Infinitive and the
other the Qualitative; 19 Coptic uses both the Infinitive and the
Qualitative in forming both the Second Present and the Circum-
18 See especially Worrell, Coptic Sounds, Part II, Chapter I.
In this paper I extend the term “ Qualitative ” to the Egyptian
ancestors of that Coptic form, for the sake of simplicity.
264
William F. Edgerton
stantial, and the distinction between the Infinitive and the
Qualitative in Coptic is essentially the same as in L. Eg.
(2) L. Eg. t-tr*/ sdm, a combination of a sdm*f form of iry
“to do ” with the Infinitive, meaning literally “he does hear.”
This form was probably not originally used with the Qualitative,
but it may have come to be so used in Demotic. 20
In what follows, I shall cite these two Egyptian forms of ex-
pression as (1) and (2) respectively.
It is a painful fact, but a fact nevertheless, that what appear to
be L. Eg. examples of both (1) and (2) can be found in both main
and subordinate clauses, and expressing past, present and future
time : each of the two appears to cover all, and more than all, of
the uses served by the Coptic Second Present and Circumstantial.
It is suspected that this apparently hopeless confusion may he at
least partly due to the odd orthography of Late Egyptian. 21
Demotic orthography, in this case, is even more confusing than
that of L. Eg.— or so it appears at present. Future research will
have to wrestle with this aspect of the problem, but the prospects
cannot be called encouraging.
In M. Eg., where (1) is a clearly differentiated form and (2) can
hardly be said to exist, (1) is often used with pronoun subject
(though not with noun subject) in subordinate clauses; and when
so used it corresponds very closely indeed to the usage of the Coptic
Circumstantial. In L. Eg., not only is this circumstantial use of
(1) extended to the form with noun subject, but the same intro-
ductory element iw (or what appears to be that) is constantly
prefixed to sentences of many other types, giving them circum-
stantial force. This last function is performed in all Coptic dialects
by a prefixed e- (never a-, and never ere-, ele-). The apparent
identity of this e- with L. Eg. iw on the one hand and with the
initial vowel of the Coptic Circumstantial on the other (contrast-
ing, in A, F and B, with the initial vowel a of the Second Present)
is a reason for suspecting that the Circumstantial (but not, or not
10 See Junker, Papyrus Lonsdorfer I (SB. Akad. Wien, 197. Bd., 2. Abh.,
1921), p. 22; of the two examples which Junker cites (Ryl. 226, note 20
and 243. note 17) the former may well be an Infinitive with passive sense,
as Griffith suggested, but the latter is almost certainly a Qualitative. The
real difficulty here lies in the apparently hopeless confusion ( rightly stressed
by Junker) between demotic spellings of i-ir and those of iw.
11 Cf. footnote 24.
Coptic Verbal Forms 265
necessarily, the Second Present) may likewise be derived from
L. Eg. iw.
(2), it will be remembered, was a L. Eg. combination of a sdm*f
form of a verb iry “to do” with (originally) the Infinitive of the
main verb. A sdm*f form of the same verb, and one which may
reasonably be thought to be identical with the form used in (2),
appears in Coptic in the Negative Present of Custom, 22 where it
is invariably preceded by the negative element m- (written and
perhaps pronounced mp- in B, the p if real being derivable from
mpef-). The L. Eg. ancestor of this negative element was written
bw ; its L. Eg. pronunciation is unknown. 23 The invariable pres-
ence of this negative element in the Negative Present of Custom,
and its invariable absence in (2), would perhaps go far toward
explaining the differences in vocalization which exist, in F and A 2 ,
between the Negative Present of Custom and the Second Present —
if it could be shown on other grounds that the Second Present is
descended from (2).
Personally, I believe that the Second Present is descended from
(2) and the Circumstantial from (1), but I do not see how either
of these propositions can be quite conclusively proved or disproved.
I base this scepticism on the peculiarities of L. Eg. and d. spelling
which have already been mentioned. Gardiner, in his brilliant
discussion of the tense-formative ere- in L. Eg., 24 has shown con-
clusively that certain forms of iw and iry were confused, at least
in writing, as early as the nineteenth dynasty — in other words, at
the very beginning of the L. Eg. period. When once this fact is
admitted, what reliance can be placed on any writing of either iw
or iry in Late Egyptian or demotic?
The probable conclusion seems to me to be, that (2) had lost its
r by the nineteenth dynasty, except in the second person feminine
singular, in the form before noun subject, and perhaps in the
second person plural (cf. B areten-). Those forms which had lost
the r were then probably identical in consonantal structure with
the corresponding forms of (1). At some date which we cannot
“ See Table 2.
** Albright believes that it “ was presumably vocalized law ” ( The
Vocalization of the Egyptian Syllabic Orthography, p. 24). For my part,
I doubt whether it ever contained either a 6 or a to in actual speech: see
AJSL 48 (1931), 42, and Czermak, Die Laute der tig. Sprache, II 118
and 138.
“ JEA , 16 (1930), 220-228.
266
William F. Edgerton
now determine, this close resemblance between (1) and (2) in all
but two or three forms led to the equalizing of these two or three
forms also, by the transfer of the consonant r which had survived
in these forms of (2) to the corresponding forms of (1), where it
was etymologically out of place. When this had happened, the two
paradigms (1) and (2) may well have been identical with the
Coptic Circumstantial and Second Present, respectively. But I
must repeat that I do not see how this conclusion can be proved
or disproved.
HI. The Verbal Infix -re- of the 2nd Person Feminine Singular
There exists in all Coptic dialects a verbal infix -r- or -re-
(F -l- or -le-) whose function is to mark the second person
feminine singular as subject. 25 It is found in all dialects in the
Second Present, the Second and Third Futures, the First and
Second Perfects, the Imperfect, the Circumstantial, the Condi-
tional, and the Negative Present of Custom; in S, B and F in the
(affirmative) Present of Custom; in B and F in the First
Future ; 2 * and in F alone in the First Present. The Present of
Custom and its negative counterpart contain the verb iry “ to do ”,
and I have tried to show in the second part of this paper that the
Second Present probably contained the same verb. In the light of
present knowledge, the Second Present would seem to have been
probably the most important source of our infix. The Present of
Custom is ruled out in A and A,, which show the r (of hr?) in all
forms, and therefore is not likely to have been a principal source
in the other dialects; while the Negative Present of Custom is a
relatively uncommon form, and will probably have played only a
subsidiary role. Other possible sources for the infix are the Con-
ditional, whose origin is totally obscure, 27 and the Third Future,
Infixes of similar form and related origin exist also for the second
person plural. and for noun subject, but no two of the three are quite alike
“ the,r d ** n *"twm For simplicity’s sake, the infix of the second person
“d heT ’ A " the m ° St USPd ° f the
f,,. Tenne - (F) doubtless represents an earlier *t elne-, as Chaine suggests,
S g , r ' dlalectale c °Ptr, p. 146. Till, K. Dialektgr. (1931), p. 52,
Ekfa930r e f ° m ' th ° Ugh iD Ch ^omatMe fur l fay.
“ P ' '' he " ave tenne - alone: I do not know whether telne-
occurs m the sources, or not.
17 Two different etymologies for the Conditional have been offered, one
Coptic Verbal Forms
267
whose derivation no longer seems as obvious as it did before Gardiner
published the article on the tense-formative ere- which I have men-
tioned above . 28 The Second Future is almost certainly a direct
derivative of the Second Present (S and presumably A 2 efna-,
AFB afna -) and Circumstantial (efna- in all dialects). The First
and Second Perfects, the Imperfect, the Circumstantial, the Fayumic
First Present and First Future and the Bohairic First Future
probably adopted the infix after it had already come to be felt as
a sign of the second person feminine singular in the Second Present
and the Negative Present of Custom.
by Spiegelberg, Dem. Gr., §499, and the other by Sethe, ZDMG 79 (1925),
296, note 1, and 64 (1929), 66; neither is very convincing.
58 This remark, which was based originally on the phenomena observed
by Gardiner in M. Eg. and L. Eg., is reinforced by two facts of Coptic
morphology: first, the Third Future presents only a single paradigm in
each dialect, differing in this respect from the Second Future which pre-
sents two paradigms corresponding to the Second Present and Circum-
stantial, respectively, in those dialects (A, F, B) where the Second Present
and Circumstantial differ morphologically from one another; second, the
single paradigm of the Third Future corresponds to that of the Second
Present in A, but to that of the Circumstantial in F and B.
HAS SHAME A NOTES IV :
THE CONFLICT OF BAAL AND THE WATERS
James A. Montgomeey
University of Pennsylvania
(1) The Text
In Syria xvi. 29-45, M. Virolleaud has published a fresh
Hebrew test from Ras Shamra. Of the tablet, which is incom-
plete, he presents but one face containing a single column of text,
and in deferring the publication of the reverse states that the sub-
jects it treats are very different from those on the published face.
The editor expresses the gist of this new epical fragment, as he
interprets it, by the title “ La revolte de Noser contre Baal.”
The text may be divided into three acts on both liteTaTy and
dramatic account. Lines 1-10 present a dialogue between the divine
hero and Kuthar; 11. 11-27 pictures in Homeric fashion the com-
bat between the hero and his opponents ; 11. 28 ff. constitute an
epilogue in which, after a couplet describing the victor’s triumph,
Athtart takes the role.
The accompanying plate presents, in Hebrew transliteration,
parts one and three in running form. But part two is a specimen
of highly developed poetic, perhaps choric, art the most remark-
able that has yet appeared in these texts. 1 And accordingly I have
attempted to present the at once metrical and dramatic style in
tabular form of lines and columns. This exhibit will, I trust,
explain itself; the lines are to be read one after the other, the
columnar lines being applied to collate the parallel recurrent
phrases. 2
• f Harns s article in this Journal, 1934, 80 ff., and for parallels
m e Hebrew Bible (studied independently of these texts), the several
Ruminating art'Oes by Principal Slotki, e. g. AJSL of Oct., 1933. Journal
Manchester Eg. and Or. Soc., XVIII, in both of which the writer lists
“Th 1 In similar Vein * s the article by Walker and Lund on
, p. 1 ,, erary Struoture of the Book of Habakkuk,” JBL 1935, 355 ff.
For eitaf 6 Wri ^®*" s ^ otes supra 89 ff., for a similar presentation.
Svria XTT 0I \o!ff he 6arlier epi0al teSts 1 use the following sigilla: A ~
! X f“ XnL «»«•> C-XIT. 125 B. ; iJxr. 307 S-
m IT, , Dr ' ,or >"> UU *‘l !"
mg the final copy for the plate.
268
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nr> jr» /avi> »3.yo*i» _r»nv»rm3i-3.SV3
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* 3BJ ujd(jS 3 J n _ r**|3L
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_o> - -V! a,*, C 37 ) .nfcn -uVyaC*; — ((S '-*' 1 • 33 u>S ( 13 J » w
C^o) _______ vu/3 • .3 a _ (3^J ,3 0> 5< 3 a. (wj
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*1
Baal and the Waters
269
Some few remarks may be made on this graphic form. By the
arrangement proposed the poem divides into two equal strophes of
12 lines each; and the forms are almost wholly correspondent.
I had earlier thought of supplying in B 2 the plus contained in
B 14, as a clerical omission; but I have avoided the heroic treat-
ment by my attempt at interpretation. Similarly I have speculated
whether C 3 should not be supplied before D 15 ; it must be sup-
plied in thought before the following choric expression. I might
compare the actually unsyntactical repetition at Ps. 18 : 14 from
v. 13, of the phrase “hailstones and coals of fire.” Also there is
unequal balancing of form between the two strophes; C 3 and
G 10 stand sole, but their quantum is made up by the parallelistie
J 19 and 23, which have no parallel in the first strophe. There is
a similar phenomenon in the poetical passage treated by Dr. Harris
in his article cited above.
In respect to literary form the variations in this poem constitute
an interesting phenomenon. Under E there is the alternation of
subjects of the verb, with accompanying grammatical change in
gender. Under F there is the progress of action on part of the
berserker hero, from “ smiting the shoulder ” and “ the chest ” of
his two antagonists, to his “ smashing the head ” of the one and
“ the forehead ” of the other, this along with alternation of verbal
tense. 1 12 with its introductory precative particle l- is a demand;
the parallel simple impf. at 1. 20 is statement of fact, the result
demanded.
(2) The Myth
The myth is that of the rebellion of the waters personified in
the Sea and the Kiver. The genius of the former is Zebul-Yam,
Abode-of-the-Sea, of the latter Tapit-nahar, Euler (the Biblical
“ judge ”) -of -the-Kiver. 3 The River is the fabulous water-supply
* “ Abode,” i. e. temple, etc., is a surrogate for the divine name as here
and in the earlier tests, Zebul-Baal; cf. later Hebrew maq&m, etc.
[A striking parallel to the River- Judge is reflected by the legal pro-
visions in cuneiform law whereby disputed cases are presented to the
“River-god” for decision by ordeal; cf. e. g., Assyrian Laws, KVI. 1.
§§ 17, 24, 25. By an interesting coincidence, the same issue of Syriain
which the present text is published illustrates a statuette from Mari
inscribed with the name of Idi-dNarum (PI. ix), with the Sumerian and
Akkadian equivalents for “ river.” The date of the Mari statuettes is Early
Dynastic, i. e., cir. 3000 b, c. — E. A. S.]
3
270
James A. Montgomery
of the earth ; cf . “ the River ” which “ went forth to water the
earth ” in the Eden story (see Skinner, Genesis, 62 ff.). The myth
is similar to that in the first of the Babylonian Seven Tablets of
Creation, of the war waged against the gods by Tiamat and her
associates; it is not the Biblical story of the Noachian deluge.
Compare also the myth of the rebellious Sons of God in Gen. 6,
and its later counterpart in Enoch, cc. 6 ff. But the present myth
has its independence and serves to illustrate much mythological
language of the Hebrew Bible.
Such reminiscences are the following: Ps. 29: 3, “The voice of
Y. is upon the waters,” and v. 10. “ Y. took his seat on the Flood,
and Y. sits a king forever.” Ps. 93 is a brief commentary on our
myth : “ Established is thy throne from eld. . . . The rivers of
Y. lift up, they lift up their voice, the rivers lift up their . . .
[pounding?]. More than the voice of many waters, more glorious
than the breakers of the sea, glorious in the height is Y.” Com-
pare the reminiscences of such a divine conflict at Ps. 18 : 14 ff.,
e. g. : “ thundered in heaven Y., and the Highest gave his voice.
. . . And he sent his arrows and scattered them [no immediate
antecedent!], and lightnings he shot [?], and confounded them.
And were seen the channels of the waters ... at thy chiding,
0 Y.” A similar case is found at Is. 17 : 12 f., where mythological
language is inserted into the historical prospect, with <m inimi-
table alliteration and syntax like instances in the Has Shamra
texts :
Ah, the roar of many peoples,
like the roar of seas they roar.
And clash of nations like clash
of mighty waters a-clashing,
Nations like the clash of many waters a-clashing. —
And He scolds it and it flees afar.
Again the singular “it,” perhaps better “him,” without ante-
cedent. (I have followed the Hebrew text, pace the critics, whose
classical taste is offended by the repetitions.) Further there is the
striking literary reminiscence of the epical 1. 12 at Is. 57 : 20 :
E'er v'a 1 o nmm . . . uni: cpd DTunn
A similar passage of singularly alliterative character appears at
Ps. 46 : 3 f .
Baal and the Waters
271
The action and the dramatis personae of the myth are at first
sight obscure, this largely owing to the broken condition of the
first four lines. M. Virolleaud, as his title proposes, discovers a
contest between the highest Baal and the well known genius of
these tablets Kuthar (also with the composite name Kuthar-and-
Hasis, as earlier, and with a new epithet Kuthar-sradm), with
Aleyan-Baal arrayed on the latter’s side. But the identity of the
unnamed divine speaker in the opening lines is revealed in the
response made to him by Kuthar in 11. 7 if. (as I interpret) :
“I say to thee [not “go,” with Vir.], to Zebul-Baal, I repeat to
the Cloud-Eider: Thy enemies the Baals thou shalt smash . . .
thou shalt take thy everlasting sovereignty.” Now Zebul-Baal is
no other than Aleyan as the parallelism in A i. 14; iii. 3, proves,
while “ Cloud-Eider” is also epithet of Aleyan, with B iii. 11, 18;
iv. 122 ; D ii. 7. On the other hand the named opponents are Yam
“Sea,” 1. 13 ■= Zebul-Yam, 1. 14 etc., and Nahar “ Eiver,” 11. 13,
20 = Euler-of-the-Eiver, 11. 15 etc. The former deity is also ad-
dressed as 'z ym, “ Mighty-One-of-the-Sea,” 1. 17. It is their
waters which “ surge up to the throne and seat ” of Aleyan Baal,
11. 12, 20. For another name given to this deity in the “ scolding
of names,” 1. 19, see notes below. 4
There arises the problem of the identity of the “ Baals ” who are
spoken of as “ thy ( Aleyan’s) enemies,” 11. 8 f., and whose “ death ”
is referred to at 11. 32, 34, 36. They can be no other than the
deities of the deep and their associates whom Aleyan “ smashed ” ;
they are not the whole pantheon. Indeed in the combat Baal has
his cortege of followers, expressed in parallel phrases, 11. 13, 21 and
11. 15, 23 (for the terms see below).
The third act, 11. 28 ff., with the introduction of Athtart and her
“ scolding ” of Aleyan and crying “ shame ” on him, raises yet
another problem. That goddess has appeared hitherto only in the
smaller Tablets, except for a case of disputed spelling {’ttrt for
‘ttrt?), B ii. 13. Why her umbrage here is not obvious. I can
only compare Ishtar’s dismay and rage over the flood in the Gil-
gamesh Epic, in truly feminine passion. Athtart’s motive may
* Virolleaud, p. 29, discussing the alleged enmity of Kuthar towards
Baal makes the point that he is called “ Son of the Sea ” at B vii. 15; but
the interpretation is doubtful, and in any case we can hardly expect logic
in these erratic deities.
272
James A. Montgomery
probably be explained thus : Her complaint, 11. 29 f., is that the
destruction of the Sea involves that of the Eiver; it is the fate
of the latter that outrages her. I can but suppose that the myth
involved lies in the problem facing nature, of which Athtart as
goddess of fertility was the peculiar patroness, if the Eiver, i. e.
the rivers, are suppressed equally with the Sea. Their punishment
and restraint equally with the Sea was necessary in view of the
destructive spates, sails, of Syria and Arabia. Their equality is
expressed at Ps. 24 : 2, “ He has founded it [the earth] upon the
seas, establishes it on the rivers.” (N. b. the variation of tense
just as in the present poem.) Again Ps. 74: 15, “ Thou hast dried
up ever-running rivers ” ; for the “ drying up ” cf . our text at 1. 28.
The indeterminate noun “ river,” whose “ channels rejoice the City
of God ” (a paradisaic expression), Ps. 46 : 5, may be the Eiver of
our myth. To Athtart’s mind the destruction of the Baals of the
deep might also involve the destruction of many, or all, Baals, and
lead to the tyranny of one God. This notion may underlie the
phrase “ a day for the death of Baals,” 11. 32, 34. The Phoenician
myths as retailed by Sanchuniathon are full of the envies and con-
tentions of the deities for supremacy.
In the following translation fragmentary vocables will be avoided
to be discussed below in the Notes.
(3) Translation
... (5) To the earth will fall my despisers, and to the dust
the braves of Ay. (6) From his mouth a word surely came forth,
with his lips he addressed him [ ?] : “ And do thou announce
(7) _ under the throne of Zebul-of-the-Sea.” And answered Ku-
thar-and-Hasis : “Surely I speak (8) to thee, to Zebul-Baal, I
repeat to the Cloud-Eider. Behold, thy enemies (9) the Baals,
behold, thy enemies thou shalt smite, behold, shalt destroy thy foes.
(10) Thou shalt take thy everlasting kingdom, thy rule that is for
ages and ages.”
(11) Kuthar-of-the-Bands [ ?] descends and scolds them by
name [lit. their names] : “Thy name, thou!”
(12) Surges, surges the surge of the Sea, the surge of the Sea
to his throne, (13) the Eiver to the seat of bis rule.
Advances the congregation of Baal. Like an eagle with his fist
[fingers] (14) he smote the shoulder of Zebul-of-the-Sea, on the
breast (15) the Euler-of-the-Eiver.
Baal and the Waters
273
Advances the band of the congregation of Baal. Like an eagle
(16) with his fist he smites the shoulder of Zebul-of-the-Sea, on
the breast the Ruler -of (17)-the-River. “ Potentate of the Sea, let
its ” [two jussive verbs with subjects].
(18) Kuthar-of-the-Bands descends and scolds them by name:
(19) “Thy name, thou, is Aymr, Aymr, Lord [mr] -of-the-Sea,
Lord of the Sea.”
(20) To his throne the River, to the seat of his rule!
Advances (21) the congregation of Baal. Like an eagle with
his fist he smote the skull of (22) Zebul-of-the-Sea, on the forehead
[between the eyes] the Ruler-of-the-River. And he suppresses the
Sea, (23) raises the earth.
And advances the band of the congregation of Baal. (24) Like
an eagle with his fist he smites the skull of Zebul-of-the-Sea, (25)
on the forehead the Ruler-of-the-River. He supresses the Sea, he
raises (26) the earth _ _ _ _ [passage as at 1. 17, but verbs in
indicative] .
(27) Baal collects and dries up the Sea, he dispatches the Ruler-
of-the-River.
(28) By name Athtart scolds him : “ Shame on Aleyan Baal, (29)
shame on the Cloud-Rider. Like the conquest [or captivity] of
(30) Zebul-of-the-Sea is the conquest of the Ruler-of-the-River.
(31) Puts us to shame [?] Aleyan Baal and the Cloud-Rider.
(32) A day for the death of Baals ” (34) He answers: “A
day for the death of (36) Baals he slew (38) on his
head ” (4) He answered her
(4) Notes
1. mtt, hy appear to represent the verbs “ to die,” “ to live.”
2. I’assi’hm: “ let me destroy them,” or “ save them ”; the lat-
ter meaning is supported by Akk. usesi and Bibl. Aram., the former
by Targumic sesi, and this appears more suitable to the theme.
[But Shafel from is’ should be *’usaisi‘l Do we have here a (sec-
ondary?) root ss’? E. A. S.]
3. bym mnh I'abd: Yir. : “in the sea an asylum for the wan-
derer.”
’amr: Yir. offers several choices, of which the verb “to
speak ” is most likely, cf. B i. 42.
4-5. hrbm | ‘tm (with parallel unintelligible verbs) : if the for-
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James A. Montgomery
mer is “ sword,” with suffix, the latter may be explained from the
possible interpretation of ‘et habbarzel , 2 Ki. 6:5, as “ the iron
head ” of the ax, here used as term of a weapon ; see GB Lex. and
Stade ad loc. for opposite views.
5. dlny(?): “my despisers ” ; is it to be connected with zll 3
Arab, dll ? ; cf Ps. 10 : 13, of God’s despisers.
‘dm "ay: understanding the second much disputed radical as
d, I propose the ppl. of the Heb. root ‘sm, “to be strong.” The
following vocable is the divine name found below in "aymr, the
adversary of Baal.
7. yXr : as in other cases of its occurrence (also in 11. 18, 26
below), the value of the second radical is wholly obscure. Yir.
interprets as proper name of some “ being who receives a mission.”
But a verb is required, doubtless in the impf. For the balance of
the phrase cf. Ps. 29 : 10, “ Y. sits enthroned on the Flood.”
8. tnt: Vir. as an unknown name. But it is the verb tny,
otherwise used in parallelism with verbs “ to speak,” e. g. B viii. 31.
9. The triple Jit: with Yir. “behold”; cf. Arab, ha" a.
For the root smt cf. Ps. 18: 41 (Hif.), with object “enemies”
as here.
srtk (ignored by Vir.) as || to "ibk must have the same meaning,
“foes” and is identical with Heb. sar ; for the fern, abstract cf.
"ebati, “ my enemies,” Mie. 7 : 8, 10.
10. 'lm as “ eternity ” also B iv. 42, distinct from ‘Imk at D ii.
12. For his Im cf. Eccles. 12 : 5, used of man. The late hvxnn
in Dan. 5 : 31 recalls this ancient expression of the divine eternity.
N. b. supply of the unessential particle dt on metrical grounds.
11. ktr smdm ynht: Yir., “ K. soumet (ses) attellages,” or in
variant form, K. attelle ses coursiers,” understanding smdm of
the horses yoked to the chariot. But in comparison with sm d bd
at 1. 15 (see note there) I take the word here in sense of “bands,
troops, either as object to the verb; or preferably (n. b. position)
m construct with “ K ”, thus giving him an epithet. Compare the
10X7^2 in Kalamuwa inscr. 1. 15.
ypr etc.: 'V ir., “ il pronounce leurs noms [of the horses] (en
disant): ‘Ton nom (a) toi. c’est Ygrs, Ygrs!’,” from which
interpretation I totally dissent. I would take the verb p'r in the
poetical Arab, sense of “ scolding,” the defiance by name and epi-
thet of the opponent, as m early Arabian saf. Then the following
Baal and the Waters
275
“ thy name, thon ” must be understood as exclamation or interro-
gation, the name being actually pronounced at 1. 19.
12-13a. The rhetoric of the passage is evident, even if the syn-
tax be obscure. The advance of the stormy waters of the Sea and
the River against Baal is presented in fine epic style.
13b. Vir. is puzzled over the conflict of genders between trtks
here and yrtks at 1. 15. The conflict is resolved by recognizing
that the respective subjects must vary in gender. The first verb
is construed with the noun Id, which must be fem., the second with
smd , which must be masc. This grammatical interpretation denies
Vir.’s treatment of bd b‘l as proper name of “ a personage who runs
to the aid of B.,” comparing the element bd in Phoen. nn. pr., e. g.
Bod-Ashtart. The element is indeed that Phoen. word, obscure in
origin, used here as in the phrase “ the bd of the Sidonians ” (Pi-
raeus inser., Cooke, NSI. no. 33), in the sense of “ clientele of the
Sidonians.” The present would then be the earliest occurrence of
this interesting word. With Vir., the verb is the Arab, rqz, Aram.
rqd, “ to move, dance,” here used of the rhythmical surging of the
waters.
“ Like an eagle ” : the same simile of divine action at Jer. 48 : 40.
14. hlm*= 1. 26 || to the impf. ylm 11. 16, 24: with Vir. the
root must mean “ to smite,” but must be Hif . of a root Im, perhaps
aboriginal to Heb. him.
15. smd bd varies with bd above, of which it is only an ampli-
fication ; cf . Syr. use of the root in sense of “ assembly,” etc.
“ Between the hands ” : i. e. “ on the breast ” ; as Vir. notes, the
same expression is found at Zech. 13: 6. Note below the parallel
“ between the eyes.”
17-18a. ‘z ym, etc.: as argued above I take the sentence as
vocative. For 'z cf. the Akk. divine epithet ezzu, and Heb. 'izzuz,
epithet of God, Ps. 78 : 4. For the following phrase cf. the parallel
at 1. 26. The verbs are jussive here, indicative there; they are
respectively fem. and masc. with following subjects of identical
gender; and the pronominal suffix -li affixed to each must refer
here to the antecedent “thy sea,” and below to antecedent “the
earth.” Vir. translates: “pour que se calment (?) ses vagues,”
and suggests Heb. pinnot , “ pinnacles, crests.” I hazard the guess
that pnt means “surface,” as “face,” and tmn is the Akkad.
temennu, “ foundation.”
276
James A. Montgomery
19. The obvious proper name ’ aymr is composite, the first ele-
ment having been used alone in 1. 5. Have we a foreign word,
e. g. Aya = Ea the Bab. god of waters ? The second element is
best explained as identical with the following repeated mar [yam],
“lord of [the sea]” (so the spelling of this word also in Phoen.
nn. pr.). There is evident alliterative play upon the vocables of
the whole phrase. I confess my skepticism as to interpretation.
Parallelism requires ym as subject, then mr as verb — but with
what meaning?
22. yprsh: I had thought of Arab, parsaha, “to extend,” but
Vir. does better by comparison with Akk. pulasuhu, “to tread
down.” He takes it as a middle, “elle s’effaisse,” but the gender
of the verb and its parallel yfcZ, which cannot have ‘ars (infra) as
subject, requires a masc. subject, i. e. Baal. The parallel is then
to be explained from the root Tell, and as Hif., in the sense “to
levitate, raise ” ; cf . Arab. yaJcala in the latter sense. H. b. the acc.
with the prep. Z, as frequent in these texts.
27. ykt: to be explained from Arab, root Tcyt, “to collect,”
which probably is to be related to Heb. less, as generally under-
stood at Zeph. 2:1. The same may be root of the name of the
river Eishon, whose floods are notorious since the days of Deborah.
yst ym ykly tpt nhr: for the first sentence Vir. translates, “ sets
the sea in its place,” with which might be compared Ps. 104 : 9,
“thou hast set a bound” [to the waters]. But parallelism with
the following verb, which appears at D i. 2, of the “ dispatching of
the Serpent,” suggests the unique and rare Heb. root nst “ to dry
up,” cf. Is. 19 : 5, where again epical language (e. g. “ River ”) is
employed. The many references to the drying up of the Red Sea
in Biblical poetry are generally regarded as having a mythological
background; see Gunkel, Schopfung und Chaos , 90S. ’
28. bsm tgrm: Vir. avoids translation of the first word; I
have no doubt that it means “ by name.” He questions the suffix
-m of the verb, whether as plural “ them ” (but no plural ante-
cedent appears), or as the Akk. conjunctival particle -ma, found
elsewhere in these texts. As “ name ” is in the sing. (vs. 11. 11, 18),
and only Aleyan is “ scolded,” we may best regard -m as sing.,
him, as found in Phoen. and in Heb. -emo (see Ges.-Kautzsch.
HG, § 58, g, § 103, f, note) . The root g'r is constantly used in
Biblical poetry of the divine activity, e. g. Ps. 9:6; 104 : 7 • Is.
17:3 (cited just above).
Baai and the Waters
277
bt “ shame ” : cf. root bht in same construction, D ii. 11, 19 ;
the roots vary as in Heb. and Aram.
29b-30. ksbyn (bis) : Vir. as verb, “ as we have conquered,” but
Athtart’s implication of herself in the contest which she denounces
is unlikely; it is preferable to assume a noun in -an. The root
may be understood from the Heb. “ to take captive.”
31. ybt nn : Vir. finds a single verbal form, “ is ashamed
[Aleyan] ”; but nn is apparently suffix, “[shames] me,” or “us.”
33. srr = Heb. sorer, “ enemy ” ?
Postscript : There has come to hand, since the above article was in press,
fasc. 2 of Syria , 1935, containing a study by M. Dussaud, pp. 196-204, upon
the same text.
CHAYA
Ananda K. Coomaraswamy
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
The word chdyd (ef. Gk. ok id) is primarily “ shadow ” and
secondarily “reflection” and “likeness.” In the Rig Veda these
two senses are felt together; that which is in itself the manifested
likeness or image of deity (Lat. imago dei) is also shadow in the
sense of refuge ( sarma ) or coolth ( hima ) from oppressive heat.
In I. 73. 8 Agni is said to be associated with, or present in, the
world “like a shadow” ( chayavva visvam bhuvanam sisaJcsi) ; in
what sense this is a laudatory expression appears in VI. 16. 38,
“We come to thee, 0 Agni, in thy golden likeness ( hiranyasam -
drsah), for refuge (sarma), as to shade ( chaydm iva) from
burning-heat (ghrnehy ’; 1 cf. II. 33. 6, where the favor of Rudra
is compared to a shade as if from burning-heat ( ghrnlva chaydm
. . . rudrasya sumnam). The thought in 1. 116. 8, where the Asvins
are lauded with the words “Ye warded off with coolth the
scorching fire” ( himena agnirh ghrahsam avdrayetham) , is the
same; but it must not be overlooked that agni here is not the
manifested Agni of I. 73. 8 and VI. 16. 38, but either simply
“ fire,” or more correctly, Agni ab intra as Ahi Budhnya, Susna,
the “ flesh-eating, man-hurting ” (kravydt . , . purusa-resanah)
Agni of Atharva Veda III. 21. 8-9, against whom we have the
prayer mo aham rsam “ may I not be hurt ” in RV. X. 18. 13, the
similar md rsamd in I. 94. 7, and md md hinsih in Vajasaneyi
Samhita XII. 102 and Taittirlya Samhita III. 5. 6. This painful
heat from which the shade or coolth is welcome shelter is not that
of the Sun or manifested Fire, but that of the interior operation
(guhya vrata, I. 163. 3), where in the beginning the desirous
( icchant , praja-Jcamya, etc.) principles are on fire to set foot on
the broadway of life ( amrtasya gatu, etc.) and to extend their line
(tantum tan, etc.) ; the painful heat is that of the antenatal
matrix wherein these principles are “cooked” or “ripened,” as
for example in VII. 104. 8 “ with well-cooked intellect proceeding ”
1 Parallels may be noted in Isaiah 25. 4 “ a shadow from the heat,”
ibid. 32. 2, “the shadow of a great rock in a weary land,” and Lamentations
4. 20, “under his shadow we shall live.”
278
Chaya
279
(pahena manasa carantam) ? and in VII. 103. 9, where “ they that
had been glowing vessels attain to coming forth” (tapta gharma
asnuvate visargam). It is in fact by means of this shade or likeness
that the whole light-world is brought forth to be the field of experi-
ence; as in V. 44. 6, where the Several Angels, the First Sacri-
ficers, “ by the efficacy of the reflection in the Waters ( chayaya
. . . sidhrayapsu) disposed for us the wide earth, the broad expanse,
a great and noble manhood, and unfailing power.” 3 The use of
chaya in the preceding passages might have been regarded as
“ poetic imagery,” but in V. 44. 6 it is quite clear that chaya is not
merely in a figurative sense a place of comfort, but is the form of
deity reflected in the Waters, the manifested light in the worlds, cf.
Gopatha Brahmana I. 3, where “ Having emanated those Waters
( ta apah srstva), he ( brahman , mahad yaksam of antecedent text)
looked and saw his own reflection ( chdyam ) in them.”* So far,
2 It is by this anterior “ cooking ” that the desirous principles, including
Agni himself and other Aditvas, are perfected ( sukrta ) and qualified
(arhant) to go forth, e. g. X. 63. 4, where it is “by fitness” ( arhana )
that “ they” (unspecified, but evidently sarpy a as in Pahcavimia Brahmana
XXV. 15. 4) attain divinity and aeviternity [amrtatvam ) , whereas those
that are “imperfect” (duskrta) “tread not the paths of Order” (rtasya
panthdii i no taranti duskrtah, IX. 73. 6). It may be noted that the cooking
or ripening (pakva as opposed to ama) and fitness ( arhana ) which in RV.
represent the necessary qualification for progression, become in Buddhism,
in an ethical connotation, the qualifications for further progress.
2 For the manifested likeness as the common origin of all things cf.
Colossians 1. 15-16, “Who is the image of the invisible God ... for in
Him were created all things in Heaven and Earth, etc.” ( imago dei
invisibilis . . . in ipso condita sunt universa in caelis et in terra . . ■ omnia
per ipsum et in ipso creata sunt: et ipse est ante omnes , et omnia in ipso
constant). The last expression, omnia in ipso constant, exactly renders
X. 82. 6, ekam arpitam yasmift visvani bhuvanani tasthuh , and similarly
AV. X. 7. 32, tasmih chrayante ya u ke ca de ro; just as imago dei
invisibilis is precisely “ chaya.”
* Yaksa in RV. (VII. 88. 6 and X. 88. 13) has undoubted reference to
Varuna, in AV. VIII. 9. 26 and X. 7. 21 a like reference can be inferred;
in the Brahmanas and Upanisads the Yaksa is Brahman. An identification
of Varuna with Brahman presents no difficulties. The Buddha is also
referred to as Yaksa, in Majjhima Nikaya I. 383, and bearing this in
mind, it is interesting to remark the survival of the older phraseology
in the Divyavadana, text, p. 547, where the Buddha’s “ shadow ” is by
him “expressed and uttered on the canvas” (tatra chaya utsrstd uktdi
ca) to be colored in (rahgaih pur) by Rudrayana’s painters (citrakara) ;
280
Ananda K. Goomaraswamy
then, the divine chaya, is the form of deity ab extra, in act, and as
mediate cause of the becoming of the whole world; chaya is that
manifested form of his, in and by which all things that had been
merely in potentia, in the darkness and heat where they are ripened,
are enabled to realise their existence and accomplish their ends in
the cool light of day, that is their “ shelter ” or “ refuge ” ( karma ).
It is precisely this “ shelter ” ( sarma ) that is wanting in the
beginning, “then was neither death ( mriyu ) nor life ( amrta ), nor
any manifestation ( pralceta ) of night and day,” X. 129. l-2. !
Before the manifestation of the light, when all was covered over by
darkness, there was no revelation {pralceta), no likeness (chaya),
no refuge (sarma), no coolth (hima), but only the burning heat
(ghrnl, gharma, usna, dtapa) of the interior darkness. In the
expression chayatapau, Katha Up. III. 1 affirms the unity of these
contrasted principles in the undivided Brahman; and this corre-
sponds to BY. X. 5. 7, where “ Agni in highest heaven,” that is
where he is one with Varuna ab intra, is satasat, the unity of being
and non-being.
The nature of the “ likeness ” (chaya) must not be misconceived.
A priori, the desirous principles are in the bonds of Death, homeless
in the In-finite, adrift in a landless Sea ; what they desire is to be
released “from the bond of Death, not from the bond of life”
(bandhandn mrtyor mukslya ndmrtdt, VII. 59. 2), from the
In-finite, not the Finite (ditim. ca rdsvdditim urusya, IV. 2. 11),
to be taken up into the Asvin’s ships of life (I. 116. 5, I. 181. 4,
V. 73. 4, etc.), and brought across the Biver to a promised land
(II. 15. 5, III. 33, VII. 60. 7, etc.). The promised land is a wide
earth (bhumi, etc.) and a support ( pratistha ) anywhere within the
worlds, where the Sacrificer may enjoy length of days ( dlrgham
ayus) or aeviternity (amrtatva) , and great possessions ( rai ). But
the freedom thus attained by the mumulcsu is not an ultimate
release, in coming forth from death to life he is not thereby alto-
all of which from a Vedic point of view could only have reference to the
creation in the beginning ; and thus the historicity of the supposed Buddha’s
portrait, suspect on other grounds, can be finally disposed of. For the
notion of a strictly speaking creative art implied above, cf. Augustine,
De Trin. VI. 10, where the Son, the perfect Word, is spoken of as “ so
to speak, the art of God.”
‘ For sarma as desired shelter see I. 140. 12, IV. 25. 4-5, V. 2. 12. Praketa
refers to Agni (I. 94. 5, I. 113. 1, VII. 2. 11), Vasistha (VII. 33. 12), or
Indra (III. 30. 1, X. 104. 6).
Chaya,
281
gether freed ( atimucyate , as in Jaiminlya TJpanisad Brahmana I.
3), for there is no escape from death in the worlds: his, Hiranya-
garbha’s, Agni’s, Prajapati’s, likeness, the desired refuge, is both
of life and death ( yasya chaya mrtyu yasya amrta, X. 121. 2), the
Year both separates and unifies (Aitareya Aranyaka III. 2. 3),
Brahmanaspati gathers together and divides (sa samnayah sa
vinayah II. 24. 9 ) ; 6 the manifested God himself is subject to
inveteration and rejuvenation ( jujurvan yo muhur a yuvd bhiit, II.
4. 5, of Agni), and it is not without good reasons that RV. identifies
Agni with Yama, or calls them “darling friends” (X. 21. 5).
A discussion of the deaths and resurrections of the devas in RV.
requires a separate article ; in the meantime it is important to make
it clear, in connection with X. 121. 2, that the life attained to by
the desirous principles and by means of the manifested “ likeness ”
( chaya, ) is primarily a life in the worlds, a life of varying duration
according to the individual’s station in the worlds, and one which
may be aeviternal (as when the devah are referred to as amrtdh),
but even for the highest of the Angels, even for Agni, from whom
the devah. receive their aeviternity, is not an eternal (in the proper
sense of timeless) life such as belongs to the interior operation, that
is to the Godhead as such, and to the Supreme Identity, tad elcam
of X. 129. 2, Agni as satasat in X. 5. 7, Mitra and Varuna as seers
of the in-finite and finite both in V. 62. 8. As Eckhart also ex-
presses it, with respect to the life of the manifested deity (the
“ hundred years ” of Brahma’s life in Pauranic formulation) “ God
comes and goes, God passes away.”
Quite distinct from the use of chaya in all the passages cited
above is the rarer, and so far as I know only Aupanisada, use of
chaya exclusively in the primary sense of “ shadow ” or “ darkness,”
and as the opposite of light and manifested being. It is in this
sense that Brhad Aranyaka Up. III. 9. 14 speaks of the “ Person
whose abode is in the Darkness” ( tama eva yasyayatanam . . .
"With the conception of “gathering together” (Mitra as yatayaj-jana
in III. 59. 5, Yama as samgamano jananam, X. 14. 1 ) cf. Matthew 23. 37,
“ How often would I have gathered thy children together,” ih. 32, “ Before
him shall be gathered together all nations,” and Galatians 3. 28, “ Ye are
all one in Christ Jesus.” For the identity of Yama and Agni, cf. Revela-
tions 22. 13, “ I am Alpha and Omega, prior and proximate, first and last”
(from the Vulgate, not as in King James version) ; and Hebrews 12. 29,
noster deus ignis consumens est.
282
Ananda K. Coomaraswamy
purusam) as the “ Person in the mode of shadow” ( chaya-mayah
purusah), whose name is “ Death ” (mrtyuh), and alternatively of
the “ Person whose abode is in the Waters ” ( apa eva yasyayatanam
. . . purusam) as the “Person in the Waters” ( apsu purusah),
whose name is Varuna; and contrasts these with the manifested
aspects of the Person, the “ Person whose abode is in appearances ”
( rupany eva yasyayatanam . . . purusam) who is both the “ Person
in the Sun” (aditye purusah) whose name is Actuality ( satyam ),
and “ Person in the mirror ” ( adarse purusah) whose name is Life
( asuh ), 7 or alternatively the “ Person whose abode is in the Seed”
( reta evayatanam . . . purusam) and is the “ Person in the mode
of filiation” ( putra-mayah purusah) whose name is Prajapati ( ib .
12, 15, and 17). It may be noted that Varuna and Mrtyu are also,
and rightly, identified in Gopatha Brahmana I. 7, and that there
can be as little doubt of the identity of Varuna, ab intra, with
Vrtra, as of Agni, ab intra, with Ahi Budhnya and Trita, and of
the latter in turn with Varuna (VIII. 41. 6). The Person in the
Darkness, or Person in the Waters, corresponds also to non-being
(asat) and to the in-finite ( aditi , i. e. as Nirrti, apam upasthe,
aditer upasthe, and nirrter upasthe being all equivalent), to the
silent, resting, Brahman that is not in any likeness ( amurta , asabda,
Santa, Maitri Up. VI. 3. 22, and 36), the Eternal Impartite (alcala,
akata, ib. 15), to Death and Privation anterior to the assumption
of being (as in Brhad Aranyaka Up. I. 2. 1), to the anatmya of
Taittiriya Up. II. 7, to Buddhist anatta, nibbana, and in Chris-
tianity to the “ Dark Bay,” 8 Eckhart’s “ sable stillness,” the
Godhead that is “ as though it were not,” Bohme’s God that is
“ no thing.” To Him the Comprehensor returns, having done with
the experience of divided things, and there “ death gets him not,
for Death becomes his essence, of all these Angels he becomes the
Unity” (Brhad Aranyaka Up. I. 2. 7). Having found his way
out through the solar gateway of the worlds ( lolca-dvara , Chandogya
Up. VIII. 6. 6; svargasya lokasya dvaram, Aitareya Brahmana
7 This correspondence of macrocosm and microcosm is repeated in
Kausltaki Up. IV. 2, aditye mahat . . . adarse pratirupah , and inverted in
Katha Up. VI. 5, yathadarse tathatmani, cf. also Aitareya Brahmana VIII.
2, where “yonder world” and “this world” are each the counterpart
( anurupa ) of the other.
8 For the “ Divine Darkness ” or “ Dark Ray,” the object of the Christian
contemplate in caligine, cf. Maitri Up. V. 2, “ The Darkness remains in
Him as Rudra.”
Chayd
283
III. 42 ; cf. Pusan in RV. as vimuco napat), he is no longer in the
bondage of life-and-death, but as kamacarin can “ pass up and
down these worlds eating what he will” (Taittiriya Up. X. 3. 5) 9
for “having become one” ( ekadha bhavantih, Jaiminlya Up.
Brahmana III. 33; cf. Brhad Aranyaka Up. V. 5. 12) he is “ That
One” (tad ekam, X. 129. 2) and “shapes his body as he will”
(VII. 101. 3), “ proceeding as he will ” (X. 168. 4), as Person no
more allzumenschliehe (Agni, amanava purusa, Chandogya Up.
purusah . . . aprano hy amanah, Mundaka Up. II. 1. 2) he is one
with Agni not only in a manifested form, but as “ Who proceedeth
foremost, and yet abideth in His ground” ( anu agran carati, kseti
budhnah, III. 55. 7). Chaya, then, as shadow in the sense of
manifested likeness of divinity is man’s temporal and aeviternal
refuge (sarma) ; chaya, as the sable stillness of unmanifested
Godhead, is his last resort (parayanam) .
* Cf. Pistis Sophia, “ He shall have the power of exploring all the regions
of the Inheritances of Light, and of remaining in the region which he
shall choose,” and John 10. 13, “I am the door; by Me if any man enter
in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and shall find pasture.”
Here and elsewhere, Christian parallels are cited, not with a view to
demonstrating “ influences,” but to remind the student that in Vedic
doctrine there is nothing unique, and that the voice of tradition is every-
where the same.
A PURCHASE CONTRACT FROM THE TIME OF
SAMSU-ILUNA
Samtjel I. Feigin
Oriental Institute, University op Chicago
The case tablet published here belongs to the A. W. Lane
Museum of Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas. Pro-
fessor J. H. Hicks, curator of that museum, has permitted its
publication.
According to the statement furnished by the seller of the tablet,
it comes “ from a ruin called Abu- J amous, near Babylon, where but
few tablets have been discovered.” The text is a common purchase
contract for real estate and follows the usual scheme : description
of the boundaries of the property sold, mention of the parties, price,
oath by the gods, witnesses, and date. However, the text has some
peculiarities worthy of notice.
1. The Description of the Property. In purchase contracts for
real estate the property is described by its two sides (da or us-sa-
du), by its front or first front (sag-bi or sag-bi I-Jcam), and by its
rear, or second front, ( egir-bi or sag-bi 11-kam). In the contract
under discussion the property is described by both of its sides and
by its second front. It is surrounded on three sides by the property
of the seller. In the place where we usually have the description
of the first front, we have here merely sag-bi, “ its front,” and
nothing more. This fact indicates that there was no necessity for
describing the front, apparently because all houses had only one
front. The scribe follows the usual scheme of description, men-
tioning the first front as well, but he does not fill out the description
of the front. The reason why all houses had one front might be
that in the town in question all houses faced the street. Possibly
the place was merely a temple, and the buildings surrounded it so
that each one faced the temple.
2. The Oath by Gula. The most interesting feature of this
contract is the oath. For the first time we have an oath taken by
Gula. This fact proves that in the place where the contract was
made, namely, in that temple, Gula was the chief deity. The oath
was therefore taken by Marduk, the god of the country, and by
Gula, the goddess of the place. The contracting parties and the
witnesses were probably officials in the temple of Gula.
284
A Babylonian Contract
285
Against this supposition may be argued that the seller of the
property, Ilushu-nasir, the son of Imgur-Shamash, is designated in
his seal as arad d Nin-subur, “a servant of Nin-shubur,” namely,
a priest of Nin-shubur; one of the witnesses, Adad-qarnaia, the
son of Ibni-Adad, is designated as arad d Adad u d Sala, “ a servant
of Adad and Shala,” namely, a priest of Adad and his consort,
Shala. Nin-shubur, as well as Adad and his wife, Shala, thus seem
to have had chapels in the temple of Gula, together with servants
from among their own followers to take care of their food, etc.
The oath, however, is taken by the main deity, Gula, and not by
guest deities, as Nin-shubur and Adad.
Since Gula is commonly known as “the great physician” (a -zu-
gal-la-tu), it is probable that this place was some kind of healing
resort where the sick of the surrounding localities were brought to
Gula for healing. The first witness is not a rabianu “ mayor,” or
daidnu “ judge,” but a pasisu “ anointer,” some kind of official in
the temple. Apparently the place was not very important, and the
pasisu was the highest in rank. Gula plays an important role in
the incantations. To her the prayers for recovery of health are
directed. The pasisu, who is also a reciter of incantations (see
Meissner, Babylonien und Assyrien [1925], 2. Band, 64) would be
an important official in the temple of Gula.
3. The Personal Names. Most of the personal names are the
usual ones of the Hammurabi period. The greater part can be
found in Banke’s Early Babylonian Personal Names (1905) . Those
not mentioned there occur in the contracts published later. Some
of the names deserve attention. It is interesting to note that in
this apparently small place two names compounded with Hammu-
rabi appear. The purchaser is called Ha-am-mu-ra-bi-ri-im-[ili ? ]
“ Hammurabi is the beloved of god ” (line 8) ; and one of the
witnesses is named Ha-am-mu-ra-bi-ra-ap-pa-su-nu “ Hammurabi
is their healer” (line 21). Hammurabi must have been highly
esteemed in that place if during his life two parents gave their
children names praising Hammurabi. Since the names compounded
with Hammurabi are rare, the addition of two new names of this
kind in one place is certainly worthy of notice. The other names
compounded with Hammurabi are : Ha-am-mu-ra-bi-ba-ni “ Ham-
murabi is creator”; Ha-am-mu-ra-bi-lu-da-ri “May Hammurabi
live forever” (Banke, op. cit. p. 86) ; Ha-am-mu-ra-bi- d samsi(-si )
4
Samuel 1. Feigin
CASK
A Babylonian Contract
287
TABLET
H&- 4®r wa-«
3-
%-Ti\mm ss»ssm
»4-Ttt£W &SWvS*£t
4 - w^SNftW&SUr
Nf $t3r
4-
- tf W Tf ^ir
;mOT
"• f -
288
Samuel I. Feigin
“Hammurabi is my sun” (ibid. p. 187); Ha-am-mu-ra-bi-ili
“ Hammurabi is my god” (Scheil, Une saison de fouiller a Sippar ,
p. 123, No. 146). Cf. also Ha-am-mu-ra-bi-i-\li\ (Legrain, The
Culture of the Babylonians p. 241, No. 328 : 1 ) . A couple of names
compounded with Hammurabi which have not as yet been published
are: Ha-am-mu-ra-bi-i-li (Yale Babylonian Collection, 8718:17)
from the 25th year of Samsu-iluna; Ha-am-mu-ra-bi-sa-ta-ka-lim
“Hammurabi of support”* (YBC, 6821:3, 5; 8767:4, 9, 15;
7612 : 31) from the 6th year of Samsu-iluna. The names com-
pounded with Hammurabi can be divided into three groups:
(1) Prayers for Hammurabi: “Hammurabi shall live forever”;
(2) Glorification of Hammurabi: “Hammurabi is the beloved of
the god,” “ Hammurabi is their healer,” “ Hammurabi of sup-
port”; (3) Deification of Hammurabi: “ Hammurabi is my god,”
“ Hammurabi is my sun,” “ Hammurabi is creator.”
Also the name d Adad-qar-na-a-a “ My horns are Adad ” (line 18
and seal) seems to be new. For similar names compare llu-i-na-ia
“ My eyes are god ” ; Samas-i-na-ia “ My eyes are Shamash ”
(Ranke, op. cit. pp. 104, 145). It is interesting to note that “the
servant of Adad and Shala” is chosen from among Adad’s adher-
ents, as we can see from the fact that both Adad-qarnaia and his
father, Ibni-Adad, bear names compounded with Adad.
3. The Date Formula of the 12th Year of Samsu-iluna. The
date formula shows that the transaction is from the 12th year of
Samsu-iluna. The time was troublesome. A decrease in the
number of contracts is noticed. Only nine contracts from that year
have been published: CT, IY, 49 c ; A. Poebel in BE, VI, Part 2,
Nos. 38, 39; Thureau-Dangin, Lettres et contrats, No. 134; E.
Chiera, Old Babylonian Contracts, No. 135; Hunter, Oxford Edi-
tion of Cuneiform Texts, vol. VIII, Nos. 1, 2, 5, 10. The Yale
Babylonian Collection possesses twelve more tablets from this year :
Nos. 4242, 5933, 6186, 6193, 6672, 7621, 7816, 7830, 7912, 8062,
8413, 8447. Another purchase contract of that year is therefore
quite welcome.
The date formula of this text is one of the more complete ones
known. The most complete one was published by Chiera, op. cit.
No. 135:25-28:
* I am indebted for this translation to Professor Arnold Whither.
A Babylonian Contract
289
mu Sa-am-su-i-lu-na lugal-e
kur-gu-si-a an-ga-am mu-un-da-bal-es-am
a-kal-mah d marduk-ka-ge
mu-na-an-sum-ma-ta
The present text has almost everything except the last line. Com-
pare also Hunter, op. cit. No. 10, case.
While the formula in general is clear, the phrase an-ga-am is
disputable. Hunter translates it “suddenly” (op. cit.), but
apparently without any actual foundation. Thureau-Dangin, fol-
lowing a vocabulary, an-ga-am = sa-nu-um, translates it “ pour la
seconde fois ” (BA. XV. 50, note 1). Poebel regards it as related
to the infix nga meaning “also,” “as well” (Sumerische Gram-
matik, § 498). He disregards this word in his translation, however.
Possibly it has a special purpose. The troublesome time of Samsu-
iluna begins with the invasion of the Kassites, which serves as the
date formula for the ninth year. The formula for the following
year has the battles against the armies of Idamaraz, Iamutbalum,
Eshnunna, Erek, and Isin. During his eleventh year Samsu-iluna
was compelled to demolish the walls of the southern cities of Uruk
and Ur, which deed is used as the date formula for that year.
These internal troubles caused the foreign countries under his
dominion to revolt against Samsu-iluna, who fought and subdued
them “by the mighty power of Marduk” in his twelfth year.
This event is commemorated in the date formula for this year.
That Samsu-iluna held dominion over various countries we know
from the date formula of his first year (see M. Schorr, Urkunden
des altbabylonischen Zivil- und Prozessrechts [1913], p. 594).
This revolt is expressed by this word an-ga-dm, “ also,” “ as well.”
The translation of the formula runs as follows : “ The year (named
after the event) Samsu-iluna, the king, all the foreign countries
as well, which revolted against him, by the lofty power given to him
by Marduk (he smote them)”; namely, not only did he fight
against the cities of Babylonia mentioned in the preceding date
formulas, but he also fought successfully against the foreign
countries under his rule.
The formula of the present text has one peculiarity: it has
mu-da-bal-e instead of mu-da-bal-es. It may seem that es is
omitted accidentally, that the scribe intended to write e-es, as in
BE. VI. Part 2, No. 39:28; OECT. VIII, 1:26; YBC. 8062 : 18.
290
Samuel I. Feigin
For the introduction of a seemingly superfluous e in the preterit
plural, cf. Poebel, Sum. Gram. §§ 457, 461-63. However, another
possibility should be taken into consideration. In some of the texts
the phrase occurs in a relative clause: mu-da-bal-es-a, “which
revolted against him” ( OECT . VIII. 1:26); and even in the
singular mu-un-da-bal-a (OECT. VIII. 5:27). Following this
thread, it should be asked whether e in the present text, instead of
the usual a, does not serve to express the relative clause. Possibly
the same form is preserved in YBC. 8413 : 20. That the relative a
can, under certain circumstances, become e is proved by Poebel,
Sum. Gram. § 721. That the verb may appear after the collective
kur in the singular is to be seen from the writing mu-un-da-bal-a
(OECT. VIII. 5:27) and mu-da-bal (YBC. 4242:21).
4. The Language. The present contract is written in the usual
contract Sumerian of the Hammurabi period; thus ki “from”
(line 7) is used instead of the original ki-ta; igi “before” (lines
16-21, 23-25), instead of the older igi-se. That the center was
Semitic is to be seen from the personal names: not a single
Sumerian name appears in the contract. There are, however some
indications that in the temple of Gula, in contrast to the other
Semitic centers, good Sumerian was still used. Thus the scribe
writes in-pd-de-es “they swore” (line 16), instead of the corrupt
form in-pd-de-mes ; cf. Poebel, Sum. Gram. § 456. Also the writing
in-si-sam, instead of the usual in-si-in-sdm “ he has bought from
him” (line 9), is characteristic of classical Sumerian. Cf. Poebel,
Sum. Gram. § 502 a, b.
5. The Text. The text is not well preserved. The clay is not
baked and is crumbling. However, by a combination of the tablet
and the case, we may obtain almost the whole text. When the text
is missing on both of them, the restoration is marked with square
brackets. While the text on the tablet and the case is the same,
except for the omission of um in gu-nu-um-ma-md-a (line 14 = 16)
on the case, the number of lines differs : The tablet has twenty-
eight lines ; the case had not less than thirty lines. This difference
is due to the splitting of some lines into two : 8 = 8-9 ; 11 = 12-13 ;
15 = 17-18. In the main text the case splits the lines in order to
avoid any difficulty in reading, but in the names of the witnesses
it crowds ea ch name and the name of the father into one line.
While the first three names of the witnesses are the same on the
A Babylonian Contract
291
case and the tablet, the order of the other four differs: Tablet,
names 4, 5, 6, 7 = Case, names 6, 4, 7, 5.
The transliteration and translation follow the text of the tablet,
which is better preserved ; the deviations on the case are marked in
the notes.
Lane Museum, No. 1, 15th Shebat, 12th Year of Samsu-iluna
Contents. Hammurabi-rim-[ili?], the son of Sin-magir, bought
1 ( ?) sars of built house from Ilushu-nasir, the son of Imgur-
Shamash, for 6^ shekels of silver. The seller and all his heirs
swore never to contest the sale. Seven witnesses, the first of them
an “ anointer.”
Transliteration
(1) l(?)y 2 1 sa[r] e-du-[a]
(2) d[a] e Ilu-su-na-si-ir [du]mu Im-[gur]- d Sama§
(3) [u d]a e Ilu-su-na-si-ir dumu [Im-gur- d ] Samas
(4) sag-bi
(5) sag-bi II-kam-ma Ilu-su-na-si-[ir dumu Im-gu]r- d Samas
(6) e Ilu-su-na-si-ir dumu Im-[gur- d Samas]
(7) ki Ilu-su-na-si-ir dumu Im-[gur d Samas
(8) I Ha-am-mu-ra-bi-ri-im-[ili?] 2 dumu d Sin-ma-gir
(9) in-si-sam
(10) sam-til-la-bi-se
(11) G(?)V 2 gin kii-babbar 2 in-na-an-lal
(12) u 4 -kur-se Ilu-su-na-si-ir
(13) u ibila-a-ni a-na me-a-bi
(14) e-se gu-nu-um 3 -ma-ma-a
(15) mu d Marduk d Gu-la 2 u Sa-am-su-i-lu-na lugal
(16) in-pa-de-es
(17) igi Gi-mil d Marduk dumu Be-li-ilu guda
(18) igi d Adad-qar-na-a-a dumu Ib-ni- d Adad
(19) igi A-at-ta-a dumu Sa-lu-ru-um
(20) 4 igi A-bil- d Samas dumu Im-gur- d Samas
1 The number of sars is not well preserved. While only one and one-half
are visible, there is space for three.
* On the case the following is written on a separate line.
• Case omits urn.
‘Case has here name from line 21.
292 Samuel I. Feigin
(21) 5 igi Ha-am-mu-ra-bi-ra-ap-pa-su-nu
(22) 8 dumu Si-li-li
(23) 7 igi Ta-ab-silli- d Marduk dumu d Siu-ma-gir
(24) 8 igi fj-a-ga-mil dumu Ilu-li-tul
(25) itu Ziz-a u 4 15-kam
(26) mu Sa-am-su-i-lu-na lugal-e
(27) kur-gu-si-a an-ga-am
(28) mu-da-bal-e a-kal-mah d Marduk-
kisib Ha-am-mu-ra-bi-ra-ap-pa- [su-nu]
Seals. On tbe tablet:
Hu-su-na-si-ir
dumu Im-gur- d Samas
arad d Nin-subur( ?)
On the case :
d Adad-qar-na-ia
dumu Ib-ni- d Adad
arad d Adad
u d Sa-la
Translation
(1) 1^2 ( ?) sars of built bouse
(2) by the side of the house of Ilushu-nasir, the son of Imgur-
Shamash,
(3) and by the side of the house of Ilushu-nasir, the son of
Imgur-Shamash ;
(4) its front
(5) its second front Ilushu-nasir, the son of Imgur-Shamash,
(6) the house of Ilushu-nasir, the son of Imgur-Shamash,
(7) from Ilushu-nasir, the son of Imgur-Shamash,
(8) Hammurabi-rim- [ili ?] , the son of Sin-magir,
(9) has bought from him.
(10) As its full price
(11) 6%(?) shekels of silver he has weighed out to him.
(12) That in the future day Ilushu-nasir
• Case has here name from line 24.
• Case has it on the preceding line.
7 Case has here name from line 20.
• Case has here name from line 23.
A Babylonian Contract
293
(13) and his heirs, whosoever,
(14) concerning the house shall not contest,
(15) by the name of Marduk, Gula, and Samsu-iluna, the king,
(16) they swore.
(17) Before Gimil-Marduk, the son of Beli-ilu, the “ anointer ” •
(18) before Adad-qarnaia, the son of Ibni-Adad;
(19) before ’Atta, the son of Shalurum;
(20) before Abil-Shamash, the son of Imgur-Shamash ;
(21) before Hammurabi-rappashunu,
(22) the son of Silili;
(23) before Tab-silli-Marduk, the son of Sin-magir;
(24) before Ea-gamil, the son of Ilu-litul.
(25) The month Shebat, the 15th day,
(26) the year (named after that) Samsu-iluna, the king,
(27) the entire foreign country which likewise
(28) has revolted against him by the lofty power of Marduk . . .
The seal of Hammurappashunu
Seals. Ilushu-nasir,
the son of Imgur-Shamash,
the servant of Nin-shubur.
Adad-qarnaia,
the son of Ibni-Adad,
the servant of Adad
and of Shala.
SOME NOTES ON THE CORPUS INSCRIPTIONUM
CHALDICARUM *
Albeecht Gotze
Yale University
The woer which I am about to discuss is a first grade work.
Though as yet incomplete, it is already an indispensable source for
everybody who tries to understand the history of the earlier part of
the first millenium b. c. Its importance will increase, however,
when the publication, so badly needed, has been continued and
brought to a close. It comprises the inscriptions of the Urartean
kings who ruled in the 9th, 8th and 7th centuries over a large and
powerful kingdom. 1 Their historical significance rests on the fact
that they enable us to learn something about the conditions pre-
vailing in the northern parts of the Near Eastern world during the
centuries in which the Assyrian Empire arose and declined; they
help us to recognise that in the mountainous sector of the Near
East there existed during these centuries an empire which counter-
balanced the great Mesopotamian power and to some extent even
competed with it for supremacy.
To establish the details of the historical development will be a
subject for future research. For the time being we can face only
the philological problems presented by the voluminous material.
But first we shall have to make further progress in deciphering the
language which is still insufficiently known.
The first issue of the Corpus, reviewed by the present writer in
Elio 23 (1929) pp. 107-11, has already revived the long neglected
studies in this field, 2 a fact which becomes evident from the supple-
* Corpus Inscriptionum Chaldicarum. In Verbindung mit F. Bagel t und
F. Schachermeyr herausgegebea von C. F. Lehmann-Haupt. Textband 2.
Lieferung (nebst Supplement zur 1. und 2. Lieferung). Pp. ix-xiv and
cols. 57-168. Tafelband 2. Lieferung. Plates xliii-lxv. Berlin und Leipzig
1935. Verlag von Walter de Gruyter & Co. RM 60.
I As to Urartean history and culture see my brief summary in Kultur-
geschichte des Alten Orients (Handbueh der Altertumswissenschaft III. 1,
3. 3. Abschnitt, 1. Lieferung), 173-85.
I I enumerate here the main contributions published after the Corpus
started: M. von Tseretheli, Die neuen haldischen Inschriften Konig Sardurs
von Urartu ( Sitzungsberichte der Heidelberger Akad. der Wiss., phil.-hist.
Kl. 1927/28 5); A. GQtze, ZA. NF. 5 (1929). 99-128; cf. F. Lehmann-
Haupt, Klio 24 (1930). 148-63; E. Ebeling, AfO. 6 (1931). 225-8; Joh.
294
V rartean Inscriptions
295
ment which, has been added to the second issue in order to let
readers benefit by the results obtained. It is to be hoped that the
publication of the second issue will have a similarly stimulating
effect.
The former issue presented the inscriptions of the older Urartean
kings (Nos. 1-30). It got down to Menuas, a contemporary of
Semiramis, the real founder of the Urartean power. This king left
so many documents that the second issue had to be devoted entirely
to his remaining inscriptions (Nos. 31-110).
We owe the present form of the texts to the cooperation of the
editor with F. Bagel and F. Schaehermeyr. It seems to have been
done quite carefully. There are only a few remarks which I can
contribute.
No. 31 1. 15: ha-a-u-a-li is surely a verbal form, more precisely
a 3rd person sing, with the suffix of a plural object as indicated by
me to Friedrich (cf. Arch. Or. 3. 269, note 2). This interpretation
requires that an accusative in the plural precede. It is surely con-
tained in the first word of the line ending in -li-e. It can not there-
fore be interpreted as a proper name. — 1. 17 : Is me-si-ni pi-i cor-
rectly printed ? The usual spelling would be me-si-ni pi-i. — 1. 16 :
Read VRV Me-li-te-i-a-al-he and cf. Savce 2 * 502. In -alhe we meet
a suffix which forms adjectives derived from geographical names.
Other instances are : KUR 3 Husalhi M.-O. 4 C 3 ; KUR Qumahalhi
M.-O. E 41; v^Puinialhi M.-O. A* 17; Sayce 49. 17; and with a
slight variant probably also KUR Qulkahali M.-O. D 6, cf. Quma-
hahali M.-O. E 37. Cf. Friedrich, Einfuhrung p. 63.
No. 32 B obv. 1. 9 : Passages like M.-O. C 4 5 and 39 ; CICh. 112
(pi. XXYII) A 2. 21; 149 (plate XXXIX) rev. 1 induce me to
Meseaninov, .-I/O. 6 (1931). 201-16, 273-9, 7 (1931). 160-6 ; J. Friedrich,
Caucasica 7 (1931). 53-86, 8 (1931). 114-50; ZA. XF. 6 (1931). 264-88;
Archiv Orientalni 3 (1931). 257-71, 4 (1932). 55-70; Einfuhrung ins
Vrartaische (MTAeG 37, 3. 1933); M. von Tseretheli, RA. 30 (1933).
1-49; 31 (1934). 31-47; 32 (1935). 29-50, 57-85.
2 * ‘ Sayce ’ refers to Sayce’s series of papers on Urartean inscriptions in
JRAS. 1882. 377-732; 1888. 1-48; 1893. 1-39; 1894. 691-732; 1901. 645-60;
1906. 611-53; 1912. 107-12; 1929. 297-336.
3 Sumerian readings of ideograms will be preferred here — in spite of L.-
H.’s protest — because their lack of inflection makes them much more
appropriate for this purpose.
* ‘ M.-O.’ refers to Marr and Orbeli, Archeologiceskm Ekspedizia v Tan
(1922). The inscriptions there published are easily accessible also in
Tseretheli’s treatment ( see note 2 ) .
6 Read there against Marr and Tseretheli: e-ir-si-du[-6i].
296
Albrecht Gotze
read e-ir-si-du-bi. Where the supplement [ra] -rat-si of the Corpus
is taken from, we are not told; supplementations are not justified
by notes in the second issue either (cf. Klio 23 p. 108). — My sup-
plement has the consequence that every line known starts with a
complete word; I suppose therefore that nothing at all is lacking
in the beginning of the lines. — Rev. 1. 14/15. In my opinion ar-hi
and u-ru-li-a-ni are two words. It never happens — or practically
never — that one and the same word is spread over two lines. At
any rate, it must not be supposed that this occurs three times with
the same word: CICh. 27. 34; 53. 14 and this passage.
No. 33 A. 12 : Read EN .NAM, Akkadian bel pihati and compare
M.-O. D 19; F 16; CICh. 112 B 1 (plate XXVI). “ 17; Nor-Bay. 4.
No. 52 rev. 8 : The restoration of the first word is very doubtful.
I do not think that the su-i-ni-ni of the passages quoted is of much
help. Furthermore, the two remaining upright strokes are opposed
to the reading su.
No. 55 rev. 2 : The pu must be between brackets because it is
supplied.
No. 56 1. 10 : There is no reason at all to join patari (1. 11) by a
hyphen to the preceding D Hal-di-i . As to the construction I agree
with Friedrich, Caucasica 8. 115. — 1. 31 : Instead of the name of an
unknown deity u Hu-li-e (cf. col. 92) I propose to read a verbal
form ’ a-hu-li-e , 6 although this word seems to be unknown also. In
my opinion the context requires a verb in this place.
No. 70 1. 6: Read of course t [i-i-ni] .
No. 80 1. 7: See below.— 1. 14: a-lu-se UDU RU-qu-du-li,
perhaps sub-qu-du-li ; cf. 88. 6.
Every Corpus Inscriptionum should be restricted to the mere
presentation of facts. It should abstain from all interpretation.
So, we can only approve the editor’s refusal to give full transla-
tions; it would indeed be premature and above all opposed to the
character of a Corpus. It was of course tempting to add several
remarks on questions which arose in the recent literature of the
subject. It is to be regretted that the editor has yielded to this
temptation, the more so as his discussions are full of polemics
against the younger generation of scholars who have worked in this
field, particularly against M. von Tseretheli/ Joh. Friedrich 8 and
The A A which seems to begin the line is in reality only a part of the
first sign. The edge of the stone is somewhat mutilated. The sign is
apparently ’a.
Col. 59 note I, col. 62 note 1, col. 83 note 1. I myself recommended
Tseretheli’s manuscript to the Heidelberg Academy for printing. I am
far from identifying myself with Ts., but I must say here that just in
Urartean Inscriptions
297
to a lesser degree, also against the present ■writer. These comments
are out of place in the Corpus and cannot be regarded as felicitous.
The overwhelming majority of them fail to refute the arguments
attacked.
In the following lines I wish to show this in discussing some of
the points involved.
I. Joh. Friedrich who deserves very well of the new branch of
cuneiform studies doubted ( ZA . NF. 6 p. 285) that “ Khaldic ”
was the genuine name of the language in the inscriptions. He
emphasized in arguing against L.-H. — and I think rightly — that
the alleged occurrences of Khaldi or Khaldini for the people and
of Khaldia 8 for their country do not exist in the texts, that only
a god Khaldi occurs. I have myself expressed the same opinion in
my Cultural History of Asia Minor (Handbuch der Altertums-
wissenschaft. Kulturgeschichte des Alten Orients, 3. Abschnitt 1.
Lieferung) p. 175, note 5 and have, therefore, adopted the name
“ Urartean ” for the language and the kingdom in which it was
used. Against this cautious attitude L.-H. tries once more to prove
that the expressions D Haldinini usmasini and D Haldinini alsuisini
are datives in the plural and mean “ to the Khaldi-gods ” and
“to the great Khaldia ns ” respectively (cols. 73 f.).
Against this opinion the following details are to be emphasized :
a.) The construction of both phrases is obviously the same as in
[ D Z?al-] di-ni-ni ba-u-si-i-ni equaling Ass. i-na <fqi-ybi-it B Hal-di-a
“ on the command of god Khaldi ” in the Topzawa bilingual stela
(ZDMG. 58. 834 f.) 11. 17 and 15 of the two respective versions,
and equaling Ass. ana tulculti D Hal-di-a “ with the support of
Khaldi ” ibid. 11. 25 and 24. A similar phrase occurs also in the
other bilingual text, the Kelisin stela (CICh. 12 and now 12 Bis
[cols. 132 ff.]) in 11. 20 Urart. = 17 Ass., unfortunately mutilated
in both versions. The reading adopted now in the supplement of
the Corpus (col. 133 ff.) is Urart. D Al-di-ni-ni us?-gi?-ni — Ass.
the points touched by the quoted notes I agree almost completely with
Tseretheli. L.-H.’s censure is unjustified.
"Col. 148 note 1, col. 152 note 3. My opinion below.
“As to this, L.-H., too, cites (col. 76) only examples with the determina-
tive “ god.” The determinative “ country ” — so frequent in the inscrip-
tions — could not be left out under any circumstances, if the word denoted
a country. I agree with Friedrich, I. c.
298
Albrecht Qotze
[ina an~\-ni ki-ni D Hal-di-e. 10 The reading of both versions is quite
uncertain. It seems even possible to replace us?-gi?-ni — for which
reference can be made to CICh. 10. 12 — by us-ma-se-ni or also
us-ma-si-ni, a reading which would impart to this passage still more
significance for our problem. At any rate, we have before us in all
these phrases undoubtedly adverbial expressions and no datives in
the plural.
b.) At the base of alsuisini and usmasini are the words alsuise
and usmase. These words are not theoretically constructed; they
actually occur in our materials. We can state with absolute cer-
tainty that they are abstract nouns. For this fact I refer particu-
larly to the inscription Nikolsky 10 * 14 ( = Sayce 64) restored recently
from a new fragment published in Izvestia Akademii Nauk 1932
p. 345 and to be further completed by the duplicate Nikolsky 13.
Here we find the group : ul-gu-se al-su-i-se [ar-dt-.se] 11 ar-ni
us-ma(-a)-se pi-su-se u-a-ni-Se. Two of these words are known
from bilingual texts : ulguse “ life ” and pisuse “ gladness, gaiety.”
There cannot be any doubt because of the common suffix that the
others belong to the same general class of nouns. As alsui- cer-
tainly means “great” (also L.-H. col. 65), the abstract alsuise is
dearly “greatness.” Of the same kind is CICh. 149 (pi. XXXIX).
8 ff. 1 - : a-ru-u-se e-ku\-u-se\ is-pu-i-se ul-gu-\u-se pi-su-u-se al-
[su-t-se] e-ia ar-di- [t-se] ar-a-ni us- [ ma-se] .
I have, therefore, little doubt that also in the Topzawa stela —
as Tseretheli, SBHAW. 1927/28. 5 (cf. p. 294 note 2) p. 53 has
already pointed out correctly — in accordance with the Ass. words
D Hal-di-a li-tu da[-na-nu ha-du]-tu iddina na “Ehaldi gave me
power, strength and gladness” (1. 25 f.) we must Tead: a-ru-me-e
10 1 myself proposed [ina te]-ni-e-ni (ZA. NF. 5 112). Tempting as
Ebeling’s reading may be, I have not been able to verify his ki on the
Berlin cast. There is no W inkelhaken at all. Furthermore, it is more
probable that the TJrartean word is rendered by only one Assyrian word
Taking into consideration what is said above, the supplement [ ina da]-
ni-e-ni does not seem to be unlikely.
Nik(olskv) ’ refers to Materially po Archeologii Kavkasa 5 (1896).
For this supplement note the passages given in the text immediately
afterwards. L.-H.’s supplementation of Nik. 13/14, given in col. 74, must
be corrected.
u J C01 ' ” 4 ' 9 uotes incorrectly and in my opinion also incompletely.
1S This Xor-Bayazet 7.
Urartean Inscriptions
299
v Hal-di-i [-se] [us-ma-]se-e ar-di-se pi-su-u-se. That is to say,
usmase is equivalent to Ass. lltu "power.”
It may be added that in D Eal-di-ni us-ma-si-i-e and D Hal-di-ni
ar-ni-i-e CICh. 18. 17 (both of them datives in the singular) we
have to recognize attributes of the god Khaldi.
There remain the three nearly identical passages CICh. 112 (pi.
XXVII). A 2. 161, M.-O. E 161, Nor-Bayazet 61: KUR
Bi(-i)-a-i-na(-a)-u-e us-ma-a-se (-e) KUR Lu-lu-i-na ( -a) -u-i (or:
KUR KtlR 13 ) na-a-pa(-a) -hi (-i) a-i-di 14 “in order to establish
power for the country of the Biya’ans (but) humiliation for the
Lulu’ans (or: the enemy’s country).”
The conclusion from the evidence given can only be : D Haldinini
usmasini means “ in the power of Khaldi ” and D Haldinini alsuisini
“in the greatness of Khaldi.”
II. L.-H. denies (cols. 153 f.) that D Hal-di-na-ni, D Hal-di -
na-ii-e and, we may add, D Hal-di-na, belong grammatically together
with D Hal-di-ni-li , all of them interpreted as nominal forms in the
plural by Job. Friedrich (see most recently the paradigm in
Einfuhrung in das Urartdische p. 15). L.-H. defends his previous
position that the suffix -na means “city” (cols. 76, 15 152 ff.) and
calls it a “ Grundpfeiler der chaldisehen Forschung” (col. 153).
Although L.-H. accuses everybody who takes Friedrich’s part of
“sinning against the spirit of the language” (col. 154), I can
only concur with Friedrich. 16 My reasons are the following:
a.) The expressions
»Hal-di-na-ni KA, CICh. 12. 23, 29; 102. 2 f.
D Hal-di-na-u-e KA, CICh. 18. 16 = 58; 16. 5, 10.
D Hal-di-na KA, 101. 3, 4, 5, 7 ; 103. 2.
VAl-di-na KA, CICh. 12. 22.
^Hal-di (-i)-ni-li KA, CICh. 11. 7 = 23 = 39 : 22. 6 ; 56. 6 ; 68. 3.
D Hal-di-ni-li KA.MES, Nor-Bay. 4.
D Hal-di (-i)-m-li KA-Zt, CICh. 66. 4=9; Xik. 12. 5.
14 For the form cf. ZA. NF. 5 118; the meaning: given for the verb is
entirely conjectural. Cf., however, CICh. 168 (pi. XLI). 3.
15 The o Hal-di-i URU of CICh. 70. 6 quoted there is irrelevant to our
problem. I can see no proof that it is to be read otherwise than ~OHal-di-i
patari “ Khaldi-city.”
la My former opinion that the Urartean plural is characterized by the
syllable na was in spite of L.-H.’s protests (cols. 62, 76. 152 and note 3)
only partly wrong.
300
Albrecht Gotze
belong without the slightest doubt to one and the same paradigm.
They are different grammatical forms of one and the same phrase.
b. ) The plural nature of KA “gate” or “gates” is distinctly
indicated in the last two of the examples listed. As to D Haldinili
KA, it is (except in CICh. 11) guaranteed by the verbal form
si-di-is-tu-a-li ; see my observation referred to by Friedrich, Arch.
Or. 3. 269, note 2. In the two occurrences in the Kelisin stela the
Assyrian version makes certain the plural character by its render-
ing. And with regard to the rest of the forms, Friedrich’s expla-
nation ( Caucasica 8 p. 125 f.) that in Urartean the plural mark
could be omitted seems to me perfectly correct.
c. ) L.-H.’s argument that the equivalent of Ass. K A is TJrartean
smi (cols. 96 f., 101, 148, 152), that is to say, a singular, is wrong.
In order to prove this it would be sufficient to repeat Friedrich’s
reference to the text now published as CICh. 66. 17 Having read,
however, L.-H.’s prejudiced note (col. 148), I prefer to take
another way of proving his error.
The inscription Nikolsky 14 reads in its new form, 18 1. 3 :
D Hal-di-na-ni KA bi-di-ni.
As has long been known, a duplicate of this text exists in Nikolsky
13. But here the passage reads :
[°Bal-di-na-ni xx-]ra-a bi-di-i-ni . 19
That is, the ideogram is here replaced by its phonetic reading.
Although the unfortunate mutilation of the stone conceals the
beginning of the word — probably only one syllable is lacking — one
thing is sure: susi is not the reading of KA. We have even a
second example for this fact, which is unfortunately mutilated once
more : CICh. 80 1. 7 is in my opinion to be restored as :
a-li v Hal-di-n[a-di xx-Jra-di-e TAG-e.
That L.-H. is able to get his identification from this verv text is the
consequence of his rendering iidiStuali by “ nachdem er wiedererbaut hatte ”
(cf. col. 89 ). It can be proved, however, that this rendering is wTong.
The form in -uali is a simple 3 rd person singular with the suffix of a
p ural object (cf. above 295 ). The two forms SidiStuni and HdUtuali are
therefore on the same level and perfectly parallel to each other.
ls Izvestia Akademii Nauk 1932 p. 345.
" Me5faninov > L c - P- 348 supplies [du]-ra-a, I do not know on what
Urartean Inscriptions
301
Here we meet the directive of the same expression for which the
available forms have been listed above.
III. L.-H. formerly identified the Urartean word pulusi or
N K pulusi with the ideogram DUP.TE ; he restates his reasons once
more in cols. 60 f. He asserts that TE merely forms part of the
ideogram, though he admits that he cannot give the explanation
for it. I adopted myself the equation ZA. NF. 5 p. 122, but since
then I have become more and more sceptical. I wish to set forth
my doubts here.
a. ) There is no reason at all to regard TE as belonging to the
ideogram, in other words as something to be explained by Sumer-
ologists. A Sumerian DUP . TE is entirely unknown, and to assume
such a word in Urartean epigraphy would be a construction ad hoc.
It is much more reasonable to see in the syllable TE a phonetic
complement, the end of the corresponding Urartean word.
b. ) DUP-fe and pulusi are used in phrases which for the most
part are different from each other. In dealing with the setting up
of the respective objects the Urarteans say :
DUP-fe teru - : CICh. 29. 2 ff. ; 88. 3 f. ; M.-O. D 11, E 13 ; Mus 20
II 3, III 7.
pulusi kuyu-: CICh. 14. 1 ff. ; 15. 1 ff.; 31. 12; 33. 1 ff. ; 48. 1 ff.;
52. obv. Iff.; 56. Iff.; 82. 3; 83. Iff.; 84. 1 ff: 85. 1 ff. : 89. Iff.;
90. Iff.; 91. Iff.; 92. Iff.; 93. Iff.; 94. Iff.; 95. Iff.; 96. Iff.; 21
129 A 1. 1 ff.; 149. 1 ff.; 151. 1 ff.; Zivin." 4; Van Angestan. 23 1 ff.
Once pulusi au- CICh. 168 (pi. XLI). 1 ff.
The opposites are :
DUP-fe pitu- CICh. 13. rev. 21; 21. 15 f.; 27. 29 f.; 32. rev. 2;
31'. 22 f. ; 34. 7; 35. 7; 38. 4; 47. 10 f.; 51. rev. 2; 87a. 10, b. 10;
129 a 1 (pi. XXX) 16; Sayce 50. 35; Sayce 86. 32; Xik. 21. 22;
Maku 24 . 7. pulusi suuidu- CICh. 55 rev. 3ff.; 129 (pi. XXX)
A 1. 15.
The only exception I know of is the sentence a-lurse DUP-fe
i-ni su-u-i-du-li-e, Kelisin (= CICh. 12 and 12 Bis). 37.
,0 Doklady Akademii Nauk SSSR. 1930. B p. 207.
11 One expects the name of a god. Probably the restoration is not
entirely correct. The loss of the stone prevents any examination.
** Doklady Akademii Nuuk SSSR. 1931 B p. 69 ff.
,s MeSCaninov, Khaldpvedenia p. 265 no. XX.
** Zapiski Vostodnago Otdielenia 25 pi. 1.
5
302
Albrecht Gotze
c. ) DUP-fe is never the main subject in an inscription, the
object commemorated; pulusi, on the contrary, almost always 25
has this function, particularly in the cases where the word occurs
in the first few lines of an inscription. It plays there the part
elsewhere played by a “ palace ” or a sanctuary. Since an inscrip-
tion, as L.-H. himself has stated repeatedly (cf. col. 97), never
commemorates itself, pulusi cannot mean “ inscription.”
It is also significant that in CICh. 129 (pi. XXX) A 1. 15 f.
DUP-fe is mentioned immediately after pulusi. That the two
words are identical is impossible also for this reason.
d. ) The pulusi has a religious significance. The usual type of
pulusi inscription states that the king erected — or whatever Icuyu-
may mean 26 — this pulusi to this or that deity. Furthermore,
pulusini-lcai is in apparent parallelism to B Haldina KA, denoting
a sanctuary, in CICh. 56. 29. The connection with religious matters
is evident also from CICh. 129 and 149.
More precise determination had better be left for future investi-
gations.
IV. Hittite scholars will be astonished to learn from cols. 85 ff.
that so far they have read the name of the country Arzawa errone-
ously. They are told they must replace their reading Arzawa by
Arzawi. It is regrettable that L.-H. did not consult anybody
familiar with Hittite texts before printing such a statement. If he
had done so, he would have found out that in the Hittite syllabary
there exists a special sign ui and that also u-i is used to express
this succession of sounds. The name under discussion, however, is
never spelled with ui or u-i. Hittite scholars will therefore keep to
their former reading.
Fully half of the Urartean inscriptions still remain to be edited.
We look forward with interest to future parts of the Corpus. As
far as known, the inscriptions of Menu as’ successors surpass those
of this king in size as well as in historical importance. What
philology can learn from them can scarcely be overestimated.
” A s an additional element in CICh. 31 and 82.
** L--E.’s rendering by “ cover with writing ” depends upon his inter-
pretation of pulusi, and becomes uncertain if the latter is not accepted.
It may be added that i-u CICh. 56. 5 is a conjunction “ when, after.” The
alleged i-u “ as follows ” (also ZA. XF. 5 116) very possibly does not exist
at all.
PKOBLEMS OF FIVERS AND CANALS TINDER
HAN WU TI (140-87 b. c.).
M. S. Bates
Harvard- Yexc hing Institute
A study of the treatises on rivers and canals in the Shift chi
and the Ch'ien Han shu reveals the reign of Han Wu Ti as a
central chapter in the millenial struggle of the Chinese race against
flood and drouth. In the narrative of the control and use of water
appear economic items — information on agricultural productivity,
on transportation and regional exchange. There was an evident
concentration of imperial activities near Hsi-an, which required
large quantities of grain and wood from a distance. Indications
of how policy was formed and administration carried on are the
more valuable because they come naturally in the story of the
waters : witness the conflicts of local interests, the personal advan-
tage of high officers, the appeal to superstitious practices, the
authority of the Yu tradition. The continuing peril of the Huns
suggests a proposal defiant of geography— to change their whole
environment and character by running the Yellow River through
their country.
Our texts put the effort of Wu Ti’s era in its setting of hundreds
of years of work with rivers and canals. In undated times a canal
had been drawn off from the River near K'aifeng, reaching the sea
through the Hwai valley; a great canal connected the Hwai with
the Yangtze; the T‘ai-hu region was cut by water-courses; there
was a canalized passage from the old Yellow River course in north-
west Shantung to the sea near Laichow; canals cut the Hupeh
plain from the left bank of the Han; the Mo was controlled near
Ya-chow, and the Min was managed in two courses by Ch'eng-tu.
In about 400 b. c. the Chang-teh area of northern Honan was
irrigated from the Chang; and in 247 was begun the highly suc-
cessful Cheng Kuo canal, carrying water from the Ching across to
the Lo in southern Shensi (on lines recalled by modern engineer-
ing) and reclaiming 40,000 ch‘uuj (ca. 1,000 sq. m.) of marshy or
salt land.
The Shih chi treatise, which Chavannes has translated, covers
Wu Ti’s reign to a few years after 109 b. c.; thus far the Han shu
is an equivalent, with many verbal variations which do not yield
303
304
M. i S. Bates
significant differences of content. Here we are limited to an
analysis of the recorded facts.
In 132 b. c. came the great break in the River at Hu-tzu (in
Kfiii-hsien near Ta-ming), pouring southeastward via the Hwai
to the sea, the first reported use of this course by the main stream
of the Yellow River. The breach was not closed, ostensibly because
of the Grand Councillor’s arguments for letting nature have her
way, supported by the readers of emanations; but our scribes
recorded that the Councillor got his income from the territories
just north of the southward break. Some twenty years later, after
a succession of bad harvests, the Emperor elaborately undertook
repair at Hu-tzu, and turned the River into two channels along
the old course.
There was a veritable boom in waterways, not always well con-
sidered. A canal from Hsi-an to near T e ung-kuan, running south
of the Wei, was profitable both for transport and for irrigation.
The Fen canal watering southwestern Shansi was expected to
produce much grain within easy carriage to the capital; but the
river changed its course, and soon the canals and fields were aban-
doned to immigrants from the Yiieh of the southeast. In southern
Shensi, improvement of the Mien (upper Han) and Pao rivers
was undertaken, to connect with the Hsieh (Yeh) and Wei by a
hundred-li portage; there was hope of bringing the grain of the
Han valley to the capital, of exploiting the building timber and
bamboos along the way, and of bettering the transport from the
middle Yangtze. But the rocky channels and irregular torrents
were never really conquered. A canal east of the Lo (Shensi) is
obscurely described, seemingly short and unprofitable; part of it
was said to be built by digging a long line of deep wells, perhaps
a confused account of an underground watercourse in the loess.
Other enterprises are referred to as benefiting over 10,000 ch'ing
(ca. 250 sq. m.) in each case : three up the Yellow River in the far
west : one north and west of Hsi-an ; irrigation of two commanderies
from the Hwai; a project in Shou-kuang, (N. central) Shantung;
use of the Wen below T‘ai Shan.
Ssu-ma Ch'ien concludes his treatise with an account of his
own travel and observation on the watercourses, while the Han
shu continues the story. Further irrigation was attempted in
southern Shensi, supplementing the Cheng Kuo project. Most
Problems of Rivers and Canals
305
successful was the Pai canal from the Ching to the Wei near Lo-
yang (Shensi), two hundred li in length. “When the people
secured its benefits, they made a song in these words: ‘Whence
came our cultivated fields? From the gleaming reservoirs at Ku-
k‘ou. The Cheng Kuo was earlier, and then the Pai canal. Grasp
the spade to make clouds, and break open the channel to cause rain.’
In one shih of water from the Ching there are several ton ( 1/10 of
a shih ) of mud; thus there is both irrigation and fertilization,
lengthening our ears of grain. The feeding and clothing of the
metropolitan district, with its vast population, that tells the pro-
ductiveness of these two canals.
“At this time there was concern regarding the Hsiung Nu.
Those who pushed for glory and gain, and who discoursed of [pos-
sible] advantages were very numerous. A man of Ch‘i, T‘ing Nien,
offered a written proposal which declared : ‘ The River emerges
from the K‘un Lun and passes through the central state to flow
into the P'eng Hai. This is its geographical setting, sloping from
the northwest plateau southward and eastward; you may observe
the nature of the territory according to the maps. If you order the
hydrographic engineers to level down the high places, opening a
great river which would come forth from the plateau, traverse the
middle of the Hu country, and flow eastward to the sea; in this
way the land east of the passes would be perpetually freed from
flood disasters, and the northern frontier would not suffer from
the Hsiung Nu. . . . The Hu robbers are a calamity, invading
and plundering us, overthrowing our armies and slaughtering our
commanders, exposing their skeletons in the wilderness. The
Empire is forever warding off the Hsiung Nu; but does not suffer
from the hundred Yiieh, because streams separate them and culti-
vated lands divide them. . . /
“ When the proposal had been presented, the Emperor praised
it, replying as follows: ‘ T'ing Nien’s plan has been thoroughly
considered. But the River indeed was directed by the great Yu.
When sages carry out their enterprises, they act for the benefit of
ten thousand generations. What is in relation with the bright
spirits is, we fear, difficult to alter/
“ After [the work at] Hsiianfang, the river again broke north-
ward at Kuant‘ao (just S. W. of K'aihsien), branching off as the
Tun-shih river, going northeastward across the Wei commandery
306
M. S. Bates
and Chfing-ho, Hsin-tu (Chichow), and P‘eng-hai to enter the sea.
It was broad and deep as the great rivers; so they accepted the
course of nature and did not block it. Since the channel was
opened, the four or five commanderies north and east of Kuan-fiao
have, it is true, suffered slightly at times from the waters; on the
other hand the six commanderies south of Yen-chow have had no
trouble with floods.”
As the Han shu goes beyond Wu Ti to the Wang Mang era, it
records with increased detail the accumulation of experience, and
discussions of principle reached a discrimination that has not
been greatly surpassed in two thousand years. In some places
there had been built through the centuries a series of parallel
dikes extending tens of li back from the River, and stone facings
protected several long stretches. Officials observed that for a long
period all breaks had come within a certain reach of the River,
and urged a new channel start from there. Some officers were
continually weighing the injuries and risks to areas north and
south of the River, and one insisted that channels be kept open to
both of the main mouths, dividing the dangers. Opponents of any
particular plan could usually denounce it as “ unconstitutional ”
because it did not follow the scheme of Yu. There were specific
reports on areas damaged, buildings destroyed, persons driven out,
transfer of funds and grain to flooded regions, costs of repair,
settlement of refugees. Special rewards stimulated officials to
efficiency and economy, while one high dignitary rebuked by the
emperor committed suicide.
As to policy, there was a preponderance for conformity to nature,
with the backing of Taoist concepts if you like. Why not use the
vast expenditures on dikes and relief to move the peasants and let
breaks be utilized in natural places ? Why should the great system
of the Han contend with the waters for a paltry foot of land here
and there ? The worst way is simply to build the dikes higher and
higher, for that means no limit to cost and effort and danger.
People lose half their time on dike-work; in the un drained (per-
haps brackish) areas near the river people become sick, vegetation
fails, even fish and turtles do not thrive. A compromise policy
retains dikes, but draws off water in canals. This practice is diffi-
cult at changing levels, but the advantages of reclamation, increased
fertility, and transportation are considerable.
BRIEF COMMUNICATIONS
Hebrew and Aramaic from Beth Shemesh
Professor Eliliu Grant’s most recent volume, Rumeileh (Hav-
erford, 1934), continuing the reports of his excavations at ‘Ain
Shems, brings interesting material, with some items of especial
importance. It is excellently illustrated, as usual, containing
thirty-two plates in half tone, three colored plates, and six maps,
besides figures in the text. It is furnished with an Index which
includes also the material reported in the former publications,
Beth Shemesh (1929), and Ain Shems I (1931) and II (1932);
a very useful feature. The volume will be reviewed by experts in
Palestinian archaeology ; it is the purpose of the present writer to
attempt the decipherment of four brief inscriptions found at this
site, each offering its own peculiar problem. Two of the number
are jar handle inscriptions of the common sort, containing names
of men; a third jar handle presents a legend of a hitherto unknown
type; the fourth object is a private seal brought to light in the
earlier (British) excavation at Beth Shemesh.
The stamped impressions on jar handles are sometimes indistinct
or defective. In the present examples we are fortunate in having
before us drawings which may be relied upon as accurate. The two
inscriptions published in Rumeileh come from Iron Age levels, and
their script also marks them as of the best period of Hebrew
epigraphy. In the case of the inscription from Boom 379 (Fig.
2A, p. 29), the fact that two jar handles with the same impression
were found (p. 67) adds to our confidence in the reading. The
characters, as drawn, are those of the 8th or 7th century B. C. The
reading above the usual dividing line is ;. below the line, BDT.
If we have here two Hebrew proper names, as is altogether prob-
able, thev are at least unfamiliar. It is noticeable that each of the
two ends in aleph ; hypoeoristic-a in -d are not very common in the
old Hebrew known to us (though in actual use, in ordinary inter-
course, thev may have been much more numerous than our texts
give us reason to believe). As for it could be the abbrevia-
tion (Zakka) of such familiar names as Zachariah or Zakkur. The
name HD3, on the other hand, is problematic. A theophoric name
307
308
Brief Communications
containing either HDD (Ps. 85:3) or ^D3 (Ps. 78:7), cf. the
rpntDD of the Elephantine papyri, may be conjectured; beyond
doubtful guesses we shall hardly come at present.
The inscription on the jar handle found in Room 376 is de-
scribed (p. 68) as both small and crowded; it is also somewhat
defective. The characters, as copied, are of the same age as in the
former case. See again Fig. 2A, p. 29. Above the line the letters
are n267; below the line, 223jQ, with a dividing mark after the
first letter. The first name is evidently CHiD, familiar from the
O. T. (Menahem), and found on a seal excavated by Bliss at Tell
el-Judeideh. The three remaining letters, BGB, make a most
unpromising combination, the least that we could ask for is another
G; and the question arises, whether this impression of the stamp
can be trusted. Further study may possibly bring new light.
The inscribed object mentioned above as found in the British
excavations at ‘Ain Shems is a small scarab seal, published in the
P. E.F. Annual , II (1912-1913), pp. 91 f. (with an enlarged fac-
simile of the impression) and Plate LXI, 1. See also David Dir-
inger, Le Iscrizioni Antico-Ebraiche (Firenze, 1934), pp. 206 f.
and Plate XX, fig. 18. The reading hitherto adopted is: above
the line, below the line, ftnjD. The date indicated by the
archaeological evidence is given as c. 700. The inscription has
received no satisfactory interpretation (see Diringer).
The Hebrew characters on the seal are roughly and clumsily
made, and I venture to think that they have not been correctly
read. The third letter in the first line is not aleph, but sameTch.
Diringer repeats what others have said in holding that the former
letter is “ abbastanza chiara,” since it has only two transverse lines.
But his Plate XXII, 9b, shows a sameTch with only two such lines
(read as this letter by several experts, without hesitation), and he
includes the form in his own Table of old Hebrew characters. I
lay no weight on the fact that Euting’s Table of Aramaic alpha-
bets in Chwolson’s Corpus Inscriptionum Hebraicarum has a speci-
men exactly like the one on this seal (an example from the Egyp-
tian papyri), for it seems to me a mere coincidence; but I think
that the reading of sameTch on our seal is certain. In the final
letter in the line I can see only yodh, not he. The short but heavy
stroke at the bottom, running to the right , seems decisive. The
name Hassai (cf. Zakkai) would be a regular abbreviation of
rp-TDn (1 Chr. 3:20).
Brief Communications
309
As for the second line of the inscription, we may well be satisfied
with the reading given above. The name Ba'd’el sounds strange to
readers of 0. T. Hebrew, but it seems to be sufficiently supported
by the rPtJD which occurs twice in the Elephantine papyri. The
proposal of Pere Vincent ( Revue Biblique, 34 [1925], p. 440), to
read the familiar Biblical name would be very attractive if
the preceding characters could be made to agree; but the reading
of beth is clear beyond question at the beginning of the second line,
and is quite impossible at the end of the first line.
A jar handle inscription published by Grant in his volume Beth
Shemesh (1929), p. 213, is of unusual interest. The object was
picked up by Grant on the untouched surface of the mound, at
the beginning of his excavation (see p. 18). The script is plainly
af later date than that of the two inscriptions discussed above,
published in Rumeileh. There is however one character which
seems to prohibit carrying the date down far. The Icaph of
this type, the favorite form in the older Hebrew' writing, finely
exemplified for instance in the Siloam inscription, seems to have
disappeared from use during the two centuries of Persian rule of
Palestine. It was foreign to every variety of Aramaic script, and
by the latter it eventually was crowded out. The Jewish coinage,
with all its great variety of types of script, has no example of
the form here considered, and this would seem to show that it had
long been out of use. Regarding the progress of this displacement,
however, we have as yet no information.
Another example of the later use of this form of kaph is to be
seen in the terra cotta object (label?) excavated by Bliss in 1900
at Tell el-Judeideh ; see P. E. F., Q. St., 32, p. 221 and Plate VII ;
Bliss, Excavations in Palestine, p. 122. The character is noticeably
like our specimen, exactly similar in the form of the head, where
the line of the shaft is continued in the middle line of the three,
rather than in the one at the right, as in the older form. The
meaning of the legend. iT122, is uncertain, and so is the date,
though it can hardly be doubted that the object belongs to the
Persian period. The safest guess for both inscriptions would seem
to be the fifth century, though the fourth may be possible.
In the inscription from Beth Shemesh, the characters in the
upper line are ^'02% with the second “7 reversed-, the lower line
has The reversing of the final letter in the first line is
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Brief Communications
merely for symmetry, to correspond to the same letter at the begin-
ning of the line. This device which I remember to have seen in
at least one other Jewish inscription is also to be found in the late
Phoenician seal published by me in this Journal, 28 (1907),
p. 354.
As far as I am aware, the only attempt to interpret which has
been made is that by Diringer, op. cit., p. 342. He is troubled by
the reversed lamedh, cuts quite loose from it, and conjectures he
instead; obtaining a proper name ITOS, which he admits to be a
strange compound and does not attempt to explain. The lower line
is supposed by him to contain the familiar name Shallum.
If I am not mistaken, this is a jar handle stamp of a new
type — the type of inscription ancient enough, to be sure, inasmuch
as it carries a good omen. It begins with a feminine imperative;
feminine, because these jars were carried by women; and the in-
scription says, in effect, “ Good luck to her who shall handle this
jar!” It reads “lay hold in peace!” and, since this
verb is known to us as only Aramaic, the vocalization is doubtless
"02!?. The interpretation seems quite certain, and the legend
is an interesting monument of Palestinian life and language. We
are perpetually surprised to find how modern the ancients were.
This bit of writing, moreover, appears to be the earliest known
witness to the adoption of Aramaic as the popular speech in Judea.
I hope to return to this subject elsewhere.
Charles C. Torrey.
Yale University.
The Conjunction of May 205 B. C.
The History of the Earlier Han Dynasty , written by Pan Ku
(58-82 a. d.) and others, in chap. I, p. 18b, reads, “In the first
year, in the winter, the tenth month (November 14-December 12,
207 b. c.) there was a conjunction of the five planets in (the con-
stellation) tung-ching.”
Dr. J, K. Fotheringham of Oxford has very kindly calculated
this conjunction. According to his results, this conjunction cannot
have been correctly recorded for 207 b. c., inasmuch as at that time,
altho the planets were within about 41° of longitude of each other.
Brief Communications
311
“ Mercury and Jupiter were on one side of the sun, visible as
morning stars, and Venus, Mars, and Saturn were on the other side,
visible as evening stars.” In 206 b. c.. Mars was far away from
Jupiter.
The date of closest approach for these planets was on May 30,
205 b. c., when the planetary longitudes were as follows : Mercury
and Jupiter at 88.3° right ascension, Saturn at 90.7°, Mars at
98.4°, and Venus at 111.3°. The total range in right ascension
was thus 23°.
But at that time all the planets were not in the constellation
tung-ching. The right ascensions of the stars in that constellation
are calculated for 205 B. c. by Dr. Fotheringham as follows : n
Gemini as 62.8°, v as 64.9°, « as 67.3°, y as 67.8°, £ as 70.5°, £ as
73.3°, and A as 77.7°. Tung-ching is however stated by Chinese
authorities to contain 33 Chinese degrees, which is about 32.5° in
European measurement. The next constellation in the Chinese
zodiac is huei, whose constituent stars ranged at that date from
95.3° to 98.8° B. A. This constellation is said to contain 4 Chinese
degrees (about 3.9° in our measurement). Hence “it is clear
from this that the space between one asterism in the list of zodia-
cal constellations and the next was reckoned to the preceeding
asterism. At least this was so with tung-ching.” Then tung-ching
extended from 62.8° to 95.3° R. A. Even so, on May 30th, Mars
was in huei and Venus in the next constellation, liu.
Dr. Fotheringham has however calculated that on May 16th,
205 B. c., when Mercury was first opposite the first star in tung-
ching, being at 62.8°, the other planets were located as follows:
Jupiter at 85.0°, Mars at 88.8°, Saturn at 88.9°, and Venus at
95.9°. They were thus spread over 33.1° of longitude. The first
four planets were in tung-ching, and Venus was just over in huei.
Venus had last been seen in tung-ching on May 14th, two evenings
previous. But huei is usually mentioned together with tung-ching
in the History of the Earlier Han Dynasty, the two were grouped
together as the constellation shun-shou (lit., “the head of the
quail.”) Chinese astronomers thus had no difficulty in giving “ the
conjunction the benefit of any doubt. We may then take the
middle of May 205 b. c. as the date of this conjunction.
How did this conjunction get dated in November 207 b. c. in
the History ? That date was the result of a misunderstanding on
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Brief Communications
the part of its author. The earliest extant statement about this
conjunction is found in the Shih chi, chap. XXVII, p. 40a, “ When
the Han dynasty triumphed, the five planets appeared in conjunc-
tion in (the constellation) tung-ching.” (Cf. E. Chavannes,
Memoires de Se-ma Tsien, vol. Ill, p. 407.) Chavannes adds a
note that this conjunction happened in 200 B. c., on the authority
of Ssu-ma Ch‘en’s So yin. But the So yin gives that date, not to
this conjunction, but to the event mentioned next, the siege of Kao-
tsu at P‘ing-ch‘eng, for the note comes after the sentence recount-
ing the siege. Elsewhere the Shih chi (cf. Chavannes, ibid., vol.
II, pp. 389, 390) gives this date for the siege.
The date when “ the Han dynasty triumphed ” may be variously
given. One answer, besides that of the Han History , is that the
triumph occurred when Han Kao-tsu returned from his virtual
banishment to Han by Hsiang Yu and conquered the three states
that had been set up by Hsiang Yii to succeed the state of Ch £ in —
which was June 206 b. c. Kao-tsu however first actually assumed
imperial prerogatives when he did away with the Chin dynasty’s
gods of the land and grain and substituted his own gods — which
is dated in the History of the Earlier Han Dynasty on March 5,
205 b. c. About the time of the conjunction in May 205 B. c.,
Kao-tsu did triumph over Hsiang Yii, in that he, together with
his allies, entered P‘eng-ch c eng, Hsiang Yu’s capital, but he was
severely defeated immediately afterwards. Perhaps this conjunc-
tion actually helped him to keep up his courage after that defeat,
for the History tells that he was not cast down by that annihilating
defeat, from which he barely escaped with his own life, and after
which his allies all left him, but immediately set on foot new pro-
jects to overthrow Hsiang Yii. Hsiang Yii was however not killed
until January 202 B. c., and Kao-tsu did not ascend the throne as
emperor until February 22, 202 b. c. It was thus quite natural that
Kao-tsu’s assumption of imperial prerogatives in March 205 B. c.
should have been linked with the conjunction in May, and that the
conjunction should have been said to have happened when the
Han dynasty triumphed.
The astrological interpretation of this conjunction also assisted
in bringing about the statement in the History. The ancient
Chinese allocated the various regions of the sky to various states,
just as was the case in the ancient Mediterranean world. Accord-
Brief Communications
313
ing to Cheng Chung (ca. 5 b. c-83 a. d.), shun-shou, which in-
cludes tung-ching and Tcuei, was allocated to Ch‘in. Since Kao-tsu
had possessed himself of this territory, it is natural that the con-
junction should have been interpreted with reference to his dynasty.
Ying Shao (ca. 140-206 a. d.) remarks that this conjunction indi-
cated that a new emperor of a new dynasty would conquer by his
righteousness.
Because of this astrological interpretation, when the exact date
of the conjunction had been forgotten, it was natural to have put
this conjunction at the beginning of the Han dynasty’s reign. Liu
Hsiang (80-9 b. c.) wrote, “When the Han (dynasty) entered
(the region of) Ch‘in, the five planets appeared in conjunction in
(the constellation) tung-ching.” In the Shih chi, chap. LXXXIX,
p. 9b (repeated in the Han History, chap. XXXII, pp. 6b, 7a) we
find a further detail, “ The old gentleman Kan said, ‘ When the
King of Han (Kao-tsu) entered the pass (October 20? b. c.), the
five planets appeared in conjunction in (the constellation) tung-
ching. Tung-ching is the portion (of the heavens allocated to)
Chfin. Whoever reaches (that place) first should have been made
its king.’”
With the foregoing statements before him, it is quite natural
that Pan Ku should have written as he did and dated this con-
junction at the official beginning of the Han dynasty in Novem-
ber 20? B. c. He evidently had no exact record of the conjunction
except the foregoing passages and was not sorry, in his record, to
glorify the dynasty under which he was writing.
Homes H. Dubs.
Library of Congress.
REVIEWS OF BOOKS
Les noms propres sud-semitiques. By G. Kyc ku ans (Louvain).
3 vols. ; pp. xxi 415; 134; xxiv 206. Louvain: Bureaux du
Museon ; 1934-35.
The first volume of this sumptuous work received in its manu-
script condition the prize of the Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-
Lettres in 1930; this has been expanded by the editor to the
present three volumes, a massive opus of 800 pages. It is to be
warmly hailed as the first long step towards booking the lexical
contents of the South Arabian inscriptions. Withal it confines
itself to the proper names, but this limitation is an index of the
vast amount of material which has slowly and with arduous care
been brought to light from the interior of ancient Arabia, amount-
ing to some 7000 inscriptions, as the editor reckons. Only scanty
lexical compendia have as yet been published. In 1917 Pilter
published an Index of the South Arabian Proper Names contained
in the Corpus of Semitic Inscriptions, vol. IV. Since the Glossary
in Hommeks Chrestomathie of Minaean texts (1893) Kossini has
published in his Chrestomathia (1931) a most valuable Glossary,
which goes beyond the limits of the texts in his selection. Other-
wise apart from indexes of words discussed in various monographs,
e. g. in Bhodokanakis s invaluable publications, there is no col-
lection of lexical material, and the student is forced to compile his
glossary for himself.
South Arabian ” of the title is used in its philological, not
geographical sense, and this lexicon includes not only the names of
the Minaeans, Sabaeans and related peoples, but also those of the
northern Lihvanite, Safaitic and Thamudene groups, as well as the
proper names found in epigraphic Ethiopic. The editor has devoted
careful criticism to all the texts and published studies, an arduous
work indeed especially in view of the difficult interpretation of the
innumerable graffiti of the northern groups. The reader should in
the first place give his attention to the Preface of vol. I, in which
the editor explains the disposition of his material. The arrange-
ment according to a series of lexical groupings may at first seem
complicated; as the editor remarks in his Preface, “ no classification
is faultless " ; but with an understanding of his method the reader
314
Reviews of Boohs
315
will appreciate the value of his distinction of materials. Yol. I
contains in several chapters the “ Names of Gods,” “ of Persons,”
“ of Ethnic Groups,” “ of Places,” “ of Months,” with an Appendix
of “ Ethiopic Names.” The classification of human personal names
is as follows: (1) Simple Proper Names, in two classes, (a) De-
nominative Names, e. g. ’ab, “ Pather,” ’usavia, “ Lion,” (b) Simple
Verbal Names, which makes the largest group of all, pp. 39-217;
(2) Theophorous Names; (3) Composite Names; and finally with
due caution Names of Uncertain or Unknown Provenance. The
student should carefully note the Additions and Corrections, pp. 389-
415, consisting largely of supplemental material that came to hand
in the continuance of the original work. Yol. II, Repertoires
alphabetiques, contains two indexes which serve the previous
volume; first a useful index of the roots of the elements in proper
names which do not begin with the root in question or with the
first radical of the root. The second is a General Alphabetic Index,
with cross-references to the analytic lists in vol. I. It is to this
index that in case of uncertainty as to classification the reader
should first apply. The same index also contains a full supplement
of all citations of names, complementing the first indexes, which
gave only exemplary citations. Yol. Ill is a General Concordance
of South Semitic Inscriptions ; it is divided under the heads of the
several South Arabian dialects. The volume is in a word a biblio-
graphical index, a most welcome supplement to the lexicon. In
brief, it gives a means of locating the often frequent publications of
a given text, and this by a very careful system of abbreviations.
If for instance the reader desires to follow the subsequent treatment
of any one of the 985 texts in the Corpus, he can obtain under its
number the concordance of publications; and so similarly for
Glaser’s 1756 numbers. This work is of immeasurable value, as any
student will realize who has attempted to make his way through
the accumulated and scattered literature.
The lexical material is treated with scrupulous care. The root
in classical Arabic is given, if attainable, along with the meaning
of the vocable, which is presented in transliteration. The treatment
often expands into a considerable note in discussion of readings
and interpretations. It may' be remarked that there remains much
to be done on the forms and the semantics of these ancient names,
so far antedating those of literary Arabic, and often to be compared
rather with the older Semitic languages. For instance we have
316
Reviews of Books
frequently to do with the polarization of Semitic roots. Thus the
name is translated “ Amm rejects,” which seems impossible
as a proper name ; this interpretation follows the Arabic root nakira
“ to ignore.” The Hebrew follows this meaning in nokri
“ stranger,” but its verb in Hifil means “ to recognize ” ; a parallel
may be found in English “ to look into,” which implies an initial
ignorance. Under the list of Simple Proper Names are many which
are abbreviations of compounds ; e. g. divine names become personal,
as II, Ilat (cf. Biblical Eli, and Jehu, which Akkadian and Syriac
properly present as Yahu) ; others are reduced to the predicate of
the original theophorous name, e. g. Nebat (as with the name of
Jeroboam Ps father) ; this may be tbe case with the name £ tk
“ ancient,” possibly reduced from a form like the Sabaean name
£ Amm- £ tk “Amm is ancient,” with which is to be compared not only
“ the Ancient of Days ” of Daniel with same root in the Aramaic
epithet, but also the Ras Shamra epithets for El as eternal. Such
a frequent element as dmr (see II, pp. 6, 46) is evidently a divine
element, and is to be explained from the Syriac dmr with its notion
of ££ reverence,” cf. “the Fear of Israel,” Gen. 31: 42; the same
root is found in Biblical Zimri, Zimran. I note with interest the
name listed in I, p. 265, transliterated as Sab‘an £ asrawan, i.e.
“ the seventeenth,” which is to be explained as a date-name, compare
my note on Bath-sheba, JQR. 24, 264 f.
But our notice cannot extend beyond presenting the richness of
this fine compendium, for which Semitic philology is immensely
indebted to H. Ryekmans. It is a work that will stand alongside
of our great Semitic lexica. And the reviewer expresses the hope
that M. Ryekmans may proceed now to a complete lexicon of the
South Arabian inscriptions.
Jambs A. Montgomery.
University of Pennsylvania.
The Indian Travels of Apollonius of Tyana. By Jarl Charpentieb.
Uppsala, 1934. Pp. 66.
This brochure reviews the life of Apollonius of Tyana, chiefly as
recorded by Philostratus in his Vita Apollonii. Mr. Charpentier
believes that the diary of Damis really existed and he is inclined to
accept the other sources of Philostratus. He summarizes briefly the
chief articles dealing with the Indian travels of Apollonius and
Reviews of Books
317
points out that a knowledge of India and its customs might have
eliminated some of the scepticism regarding the visit of Apollonius.
But, though Mr. Charpentier emphasizes that the excavations at
Taxila have vindicated Philostratus in his description of the city,
it seems to me that he himself too readily assumes that other state-
ments of Philostratus are merely fanciful. I hold no brief for the
reliability of Philostratus nor even for the visit to India of Apol-
lonius; but surely certain statements can not be dismissed sum-
marily as untrue. In one case, at least, I believe Philostratus to be
sustained by the facts.
Mr. Charpentier says (p. 25), “ As grapes have never been culti-
vated within India proper wine was never prepared within the
country.” On p. 60 he says again that grapes were never grown in
India, and dismisses the notice regarding vines and wine (Ap. III.
5) as without foundation. He is not the first, by any means, to say
that grapes were not grown in India, but I have never seen any
reason given for the statement. Perhaps it goes back to Baber who
says, in his sweeping condemnation of things Indian, that they had
no grapes and no melons. 1 Tod helped spread the idea : “ To
Baber . . . India is indebted for the introduction of its melons and
grapes. . . . 2 But there is plain evidence to the contrary. Hema-
candra (1088-1172 A. D.) was obviously familiar with the grape.
He lists it among other trees and plants in the Abhidhanacintamani
(4. 221), and in the Trisastisalakapurusacaritra (1. 6. 409) he
refers to Sabarls on Mt. Sat run jay a drinking madhu made from
grapes ( draksa ), the date palm (kharjura) and the palmyra palm
{tala). Surely madhu made from grapes is wine; but assuming
that it might be only unfermented grape juice, it is clear that the
grape was no novelty in Gujarat at least four centuries before
Baber. It is more difficult to say whether it was growing in India
in the time of Apollonius, but it seems not improbable. It is men-
tioned in the Jain Agamas, 3 and the word dakkhavana * occurs,
which sounds like a cultivated vineyard.
Mr. Charpentier dismisses other things also as “ sheer fancy ”
1 Leyden, Memoirs of Babar, p. 333.
’Tod, Annals and, Antiquities of Rajasthan, Vol. I, p. 643.
* Pindaniryukti 169 and the Sthananga 3. 4.
* Anuyogadvara 131. According to the lexicons, SuSruta mentions the
grape several times, and draksavana occurs in the HarivanSa, but I have
not these texts to ascertain the context.
6
318
Reviews of Books
too readily (p. 60). 5 Surely the wild asses with one horn are
rhinoceroses, and are not the dragons the hooded cobras and huge
pythons, granting that much fiction is mingled with their descrip-
tion? A thousand stadia a day for a camel does not seem an im-
possibility (p. 37). The Encyclopedia Britannica (s. v. camel)
says that the dromedary “ is celebrated for its fleetness, carrying its
rider when necessary 100 miles a day.” The same work (s. v. lion)
says that within the nineteenth century the lion’s range extended
through the northwest parts of Hindustan, so it does not seem
“utterly doubtful” (p. 38) that lions were seen by Apollonius.
The consumption of lion-flesh is more startling, but apparently not
unheard of. Berwick 6 quotes Bruce 7 as saying that he had eaten it.
Mr. Charpentier dismisses the stay with the “ philosophers ” as
wholly imaginary, mainly because all the details do not apply to
any one sect which we know. But that is hardly sufficient reason.
Most of the description undoubtedly applies to Indian ascetics, as
he admits. There are infinite variations of rules and customs
among Indian ascetics today. It would be very easy to describe
accurately a group that would be very difficult for even contempo-
raries to identify.
The author’s conclusions are that Apollonius existed, that the
diary of Damis existed, that Book II was written by a traveler who
went as far as the altars of Alexander but no further, and that
Book III is mainly fanciful, based on other writings. I do not
think such a distinction can be made between Books II and III.
Helen' M. Johnson.
Osceola, Missouri.
5 Cf. Briggs, JAOS 51. 278.
The Life of Apollonius of Tyana, translated from the Greek of
Philostratus, with notes and illustrations. By the Rev. Edward Berwick,
London, 1809.
Presumably, Bruce’s Travels. Berwick's translation has many interest-
ing, however uncritical, notes. He says (p. 73) : “ The wandering' Arabs are
exempted from paying tribute to either Tunis or Algiers, on account of
their being obliged by the institution of their founder to eat lion’s flesh for
their daily food. Bruce mentions his having eaten of three different aged
lions, of which none were tolerable.” He also quotes Buffon (presumably
from the Eistoire Xaturelle) as saying that Indians and negroes frequently
eat the flesh of lions, and that Indians eat the flesh of tigers.
Reviews of Books
319
The Origin and Development of Religion in Vedic Literature. By
P. S. Deshmukh. . . . With a foreword by A. Berriedale
Keith. London: Oxford University Press, 1933. xvi
+ 378 pp.
This Oxford doctoral dissertation was completed about ten years
ago; no publication since 1924 seems to have been used in it. It is
thus out of date bibliographically at least; but also in other ways.
It should not have been published without far-reaching revision.
As a descriptive account of the religion of the Veda it is negligi-
ble, and doubtless is not meant to claim much originality. Only a
minor part is devoted to this subject: that part contains chiefly a
brief and conventional treatment of Rigvedic mythology (closely
following Macdonell for the most part), plus a yet briefer and more
perfunctory chapter on the Brahmanas ; nothing on the Upanisads,
and next to nothing on the Atharva Veda. It is, indeed, clear from
the title that the author’s interest lies elsewhere; namely, in de-
veloping his theories of the origin of Indie and Indo-European
religion (and even of religion generally), and its relation to magic.
In itself, the Vedic religion serves as a sort of peg on which to hang
an extensive structure of speculation, which occupies the greater
part of the book.
Mr. D. draws a sharp line between “ magic,” which is “ coercive,”
and “religion,” which is devotional and “propitiatory” (p. 20).
These two are regarded as mutually exclusive and irreconcilable
opposites, “fundamentally different attitudes of mind” (p. 131),
altho sometimes it is admitted that both may have existed side
by side “from very early times” (p. 135). Among the Indo-
Europeans, “ magic,” if it existed at all (which sometimes the
author inclines to doubt, p. 63), was very unimportant compared
with devotional “ religion.” Their migratory life “ would prevent
them from being very superstitious or magical,” since “magic,
generally speaking, is the curse of a settled . . . life” (p. 63), —
an astonishing dictum for which no evidence is offered (it is news
to me that nomads are “ generally ” not addicted to magic). Like
the Indo-Europeans, their descendants the Indo-Iranians and the
Vedic Indians were devotees of true “ religion,” and had little or
no “ magic.” Even the Atharva Veda contains “ not truly magical
charms ” but “ degenerate forms of prayer ” (p. 135) ; and further-
more, the Atharvan compositions are very late and belong only to a
320
Reviews of Books
decadent stage of Yedie religion. “ The Rigveda is the only book
where we can find the pure Yedie religion” (p. 198).
From this it may be guessed that Mr. D. is vigorously opposed
to the theory that religion develops out of magic. Much that he
says against this theory has a great deal of force. But he is so
ardent in the cause that he comes perilously close to arguing that
magic develops out of religion. Indeed he actually does argue that
about Atharvan magic, as we saw. Here he certainly goes much
too far. In fact, I think he greatly exaggerates the cleavage between
what he calls “magic” and “religion.” Let us accept his dis-
tinction between these terms (it has its convenience, tho I can
see also some inconveniences) ; let us call “ coercive ” super-
naturalistic practices and compositions “magical,” and devotional
ones “ religious.” That it is possible to make such a distinction,
in the abstract, may be admitted. Yet both seem to me better
described as different aspects of the same thing' and (what is really
important) at any rate no psychological (or, if you like, linguistic)
distinction is made between them in the Yeda. As a matter of fact,
primitive and even not so primitive — man naturally tries to impose
his will on his environment by force so far as he thinks he can, and
resorts to propitiation of some sort or other only when he feels con-
fronted by force majeure, or when he thinks that cajolery is apt to
be easier or more effective than a domineering attitude. He deals
thus with his fellow humans, and quite similarly with the non-
human powers with which he comes in contact, and to which his
animistic fancy assigns volitional and other anthropomorphic func-
tions like his own. (See my essay on “ The Religion of the Veda ”
in Religions of the Past and Present, ed. J. A. Montgomery, Phila-
delphia, 1918, especially p. 117 f.) « Gods ” are merely « spirits ”
or mysterious powers too mighty to be dominated by force ; that is
their only distinction from the powers used in “ magic.” There are
many border-line cases which slip over from one class to the other
according to shifts of human psychology; nay, even the highest
gods ^ may, in extreme cases, be conceived as “ coercible ” : witness
the Brahmanas, where (we may grant Mr. Deshmukh) “religion”
has changed (“degenerated” if you like) into “magic.” Gen-
erally, on the other hand, a man does not pray to his ox or his plow,
simply because he thinks he doesn’t have to, in order to control
them. If he thinks he could profit by cajoling them instead of
bu ying them, he does so ; then “ magic ” changes into “ religion.”
Reviews of Boolcs
321
Taken as a whole, neither is “ older ” than the other and neither
“ originates from ” the other. But also, the two are inextricably
blended — rather, in the Veda at least, never at all distinguished
psychologically ( aliter , linguistically). They are very frequently
combined in the same verses, both Vedic and other.
This is disputed by Mr. D. on p. 155, where we read that except
the word mantra, “ which in the Indian vernaculars has come to
mean ‘ incantation/ but which originally meant ‘ a hymn/ there
cannot be found in the Sanskrit language any words for ‘magic/
* magical/ or ‘ magician/ and ‘ priest/ ‘ priestly/ or ‘ priesthood ’
which have anything common between them.” I think it can
very easily be shown that this is the reverse of the truth. In the
Veda it would be much more nearly true, and indeed would involve
very little exaggeration, to say that every such word has both mean-
ings; the fact being, as I said, that to the Vedic consciousness the
two are absolutely one. Any Sanskrit dictionary will show that
mantra means “ magic charm ” as well as “ devotional hymn ”
already in the Rigveda itself (I am sure Mr. D. cannot mean that
this alleged “ change ” does not occur until “ the Indian vernacu-
lars,” tho his statement is most unfortunate, in suggesting that
absurdity) . Exactly the same is true of brahman, which is probably
the favorite word of the Atharvan magicians for their own charms
(so used about a hundred times). They constantly call themselves
brahman, vipra, vipascit, Icaru, etc. (references in Whitney’s Word
Index). In short, they apply all the time to themselves and their
activities the entire vocabulary used by the Rigvedic priest-poets of
themselves and their activities, except only technical words referring
to the specific ritual role of the Rigvedic ( hotar ) priest. Mr. D.
makes much of the fact that yatudhana and yatuvid (“ sorcerer,
black-magician ”) are not used of priests. A curiously naive argu-
ment! These are terms of abuse. They are applied never to the
speaker but only to those who use magic against “ us.” The
yatudhana is simply a vipra whom the speaker hates; naturally he
is not complimented by identification with the speaker’s own class.
We, the vipras, do the same things that the yatudhana does (the
AV. is full of such charms — as well as of their antidotes), but of
course only for our own righteous ends; the enemy is by definition
wicked.
On p. 60 it is argued that if magic had flourished in Rigvedic
times as it did (he here admits) in Atharvan times, the RV. could
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not have been “ kept free from any traces of ” it “ by the care and
eniming of the collectors of the hymns,” so as “ to leave no trace
of its existence whatsoever, even in that most heterogeneous of col-
lections called the Rigveda.” It would be hard to crowd into a short
passage a greater number of errors. The Rigveda as we have it
contains plenty of “ magic.” There are genuine Atharvanic charms,
not only in Books 1 and 10 (e. g. the vermin-charm 1. 191), but
even in the family-books (e. g. the sleep-charm 7. 55, part of which
occurs in the AV. where it is more at home). And it is only in its
present expanded form (containing magic) that the RV. can prop-
erly be called a “ heterogeneous collection.” If we should limit our
consideration to the original kernel, which we can roughly deter-
mine as the hieratic family collections (partly included in Book 1)
and Book 9 (minus certain late accretions to them, of course not
clearly definable at times), then and only then could we say that it
contained no “ magic ” in Mr. D.’s sense. But it also contained
e. g. no marriage or funeral rites (would Mr. D. then maintain that
these, also, were cultivated little or not at all in the “ pure ”
Rigvedic times?). The truth is that this original RY. (the only
RV. which contained “ no trace ” of “ magic ”), so far from being
“ heterogeneous,” was remarkably homogeneous, and had a strictly
limited practical purpose. It was a hymn-book of selections to be
used by the Aofar-priest at the hieratic, aristocratic, three-fire rites,
of which the most important was the soma-cult. Naturally, there-
fore, it contained only hymns addressed to the powerful gods of
those rites. But the practisers of this cult also engaged in very
many other “ religious ” and “ magical ” rites. It was not “ care
and cunning” that excluded them from the (original) RV., but
the practical purposes of the thoroly ritualistic and highly
sophisticated priestly authors. And in spite of this they were not,
finally, excluded from the collection as it has come down to us.
The old idea that the Rigvedic religion was a simple nature-
worship, and that the poets were children of nature pouring forth
the naive devotion of their hearts to the divine powers of the uni-
verse, was exploded so long ago that I supposed no one now held it.
But Mr. D. seems to come quite close to it, at least for the early
Rigveda. See e. g. p. 138, where we read of the “ crude but child-
ishly simple . . . prayers addressed to the various gods” — in IE.
and Indo-Iranian times, it is true, but just below, this state of
things “ can be proved to have prevailed ... till the time of the
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323
Rigveda.” And indeed, what other evidence could there be for such
a characterization of IE. and Indo-Iranian prayers? Later, to he
sure, a growth of ritualism in the RV. is admitted, and even “ the
whole body of hymns ” may have been regarded as ritualistic in
“ the latter half of the Rigvedic period ” (p. 339). To me it seems
that one who sees anything “ childishly simple ” in any composition
of the Rigveda is manifesting considerable simplicity himself.
I cannot take space to list the numerous errors of detail which
mar the book. Many of them cannot be misprints ; as when Boghaz-
koi is located in Persia (twice, pp. 195, 197), or when Boehtlingk
and Roth's lexicon is attributed to an author named “ Petersberg ”
(so! p. xv).
Fbanklin Edgekton.
Yale University.
On the Iconography of the Buddha’s Nativity. By A. Foucher.
Memoirs of the Archeological Survey of India, No. 46, 1934.
Pp. 28, with 6 plates.
Professor Foucher’s eloquent study of the iconography of the
Buddha nativity is unfortunately marred by a complete neglect of
the Vedic sources of its formulae. The paper is for the most part
a restatement of the view that the representations of the type of
the Abhiseka of Sri-LaksmI as they occur in Early Buddhist art
are actually “Buddha nativities”; the hope is expressed (p. 22)
that I may concur in this view. I do so only to this extent, that
inasmuch as these representations are actually of one and the same
maternal principle or nature that is represented in the Buddha
legend by Mayadevi, the Buddha’s mother who dies seven days
after his birth, they may be regarded as virtually, and possibly were
actually regarded as, “ nativities ” in connection with the Buddha’s
incarnation. On the other hand, it must be emphatically denied
that the formula had not already, and long before it could have
been thus interpreted in Buddhist circles, been anything but a
symbol of SrI-LaksmI. M. Foucher (p. 13) with reference to the
elephants supported by lotuses, remarks, “it is obvious that they,
too, are a kind of specific detail subsequently added to the older
theme. We are thus able to observe retrospectively the old image-
makers’ increasingly bold attempts at grafting on to the traditional
symbol everything which could render its meaning more forcible.”
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All this is entirely to ignore the Srlsukta, which not only describes
Sri-Laksml in great detail as a lady of the lotus who is the mother
of Agni-Jatavedas, but actually employs the expression “bathed
by royal elephants with golden jars” ( gajendrair . . . sndpita
hemakumbhair) ; with reference not to the child, but to the mother.
Needless to say that “ the khila texts ... are by no means a modern
product, they belong rather to the Vedic age. . . . Only a few of
them can be assigned to a late Brahmana period. . . . The Srisukta
is connected with the cult of Sri and Laksmi which became promi-
nent in the Yajurveda period” ( Scheftelowitz, Die Apokryphen
des Rgveda, 1906, pp. 2-4). As to the notion that “no one would
ever have dreamed of using the frail cup of a flower as a support
for an adult human being, still less for huge elephants” (p. 13),
it should suffice to point out that in the Bgveda (VI. 16. 13 and
VII. 33. 1) both Agni and Vasistha (an essential name of Agni
as “the best of Vasus”) are represented as having come into
being supported by a lotus, and that the Brahmanas understand by
the “ lotus ” (flower or leaf) the “ Earth,” that is, universal sub-
stance, resting on the surface of the primordial waters, whence it
arises in response to the manifestation of the light of the Sun.
The lotus is then already in the Big Veda the support of the
“whole of life” (Agni, visvdyus).
If ever the Srl-Laksml was understood in the sense of a Buddha
nativity, the interpretation must have been early abandoned, for it
is soon replaced by the standing figure of Mayadevi, holding to a
branch of a sal tree, a type that is mythologically that of the YaksI,
and humanly speaking that of a Salabhahjika. Whereas the Sri-
Laksml type is often, although not invariably, a seated one, the
early Buddhist accounts of the nativity (Mahapadana Suttanta in
the Digha Nikaya, and Acehariyabbhutadhammasutta in the
Majjhima Nikaya), which are nearly contemporary with the earliest
extant Buddhist art, assert emphatically that it is a universal law
( dhammata ) that the mother of a Bodhisattva, unlike other women,
is delivered standing ( thita va bodhisattam bodhisattamata kucchina
pariharitva vijdyati. Ayam ettha dhammata, D. II. 14 = XIV. 1.
22). This tradition is preserved in the later accounts, and it is
especially noteworthy that in the Mahavastu version (II. 18. 7) it
is related that Mayadevi had come into the royal park “ to take
part in the salabhahjika festival.” In the art of Amaravatl, the
nativity is indicated, in connection with the salabhahjika, figure of
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325
MayadevI only by paduka represented on the cloth that is held by
the Lokapalas who receive the child, while the more realistic art of
Gandhara shows the child actually emerging from the mother’s
side. 1 We find in this iconography, then, two already well recog-
nized stages in the manner of representation; in the latest (in
manner, if not in date) the child is visibly represented; in the
other, the child is unseen, although its presence is indicated by the
footprints. We now venture to suggest that in a third and still
earlier stage of the iconography of the nativity that the birth may
have been indicated in a more summary manner merely by the
standing yaksi-salabhahjikd figures beneath the tree, without even
the symbolic representation of the child ; in other words, that the
Yaks! figures with trees, which are so familiar in the art of Sanci,
Bodhgaya, and Bharhut are really “ nativities,” and that no neces-
sity existed for the representation of the nativity in any other way.
The Spirit of Man in Asian Art. By Laurence Binyon. Cam-
bridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1935. Pp. xvi
-)- 217, with 70 plates.
Mr. Binyon’s collection of five lectures, accompanied by a large
number of wisely selected illustrations, provides what is undoubtedly
for the general reader the best available introduction to the inner
life of Asiatic peoples as it has found expression in art. It is the
work of a poet, perfect in its kind : by sheer sensibility and without
reference to the literary sources of Asiatic aesthetic the author has
rightly grasped the religious, if not entirely the metaphysical,
essence of Asiatic art, and has known how to communicate this
spirit in words that have a beauty of their own. He speaks truly
when he refers to “ a flowering of the mind in form . . . making
what are called aesthetic necessities appear as almost irrelevant
externality.” “ It is rather hard for us,” he says pathetically,
“ used to the practice of painting from nature with the eye on the
object, to realise what intensity of contemplation preceded the
actual throwing of the preconceived design with swift immediate
strokes upon the absorbent silk or paper” (p. 92); “He (the
» It may be remarked in this connection that in Rig Veda IV. 18. 1-2
Indra, who takes birth in the same manner pursrat, already refers to this
as “the pathway found of old”; and that like the Buddha's, and in fact
for the same reasons, his mother does not survive.
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landscape-painter) must identify himself with what he paints, be-
come what he contemplates, before he can express it truly ” (p. 97).
These remarks might have been related to the European approach
by a citation of Eckhart’s, “ To be properly expressed, a thing must
proceed from within, moved by its form,” and Dante’s, “He who
would portray a figure, if he cannot be it, cannot represent it.”
For mediaeval Christian and Asiatic art have actually a common
level of reference and both are languages independent of observa-
tion; beauty for both is linked more closely to cognition than to
feeling.
Kepeatedly the author deduces from an analysis of the paintings
themselves what is really explicit in the artist’s ascertained ways
of operation. For example, “ Neither do these artists shrink from
the vastness of empty space. They discover in it their own libera-
tion” (p. 98); this might have been based upon the actual
Sadhanas, in which we find it constantly enjoined that the Buddhas
and Bodhisattvas (mentally evoked from a primordial concept of
sound expressed within the heart, cf . St. Thomas’ “ per verbum in
intellectu eonceptum,” said with reference to the interior operation
of the artist) “ are to be established on the background of space ”
( alcasadese ) ; nor is this an external and dimensioned space to be
delimited in terms of a scientific perspective, but an unconditioned
principle of space within us. Problems of optical plausibility do
not arise. The represented figure is the affirmation of an infinite
negation, and this latter is the matter of ultimate significance,
liberation being from the limited existence that belongs to any spe-
cific manifestation. And this leads us to an ultimate consideration
hardly touched upon in the volume before us, that implied in the
fundamental proposition of the Lahkavatara Sutra, that “the pic-
ture is not in the colors, the principle evades the letter.” Further-
more, the picture that is not in the colors is not itself the picture
of any thing , but only the indication of a principle ; the function
of the work of art is not fulfilled merely by an assimilation of our
consciousness to its ethical refinement, but only when the form of
our being has been enlarged in conscious identity with the imma-
terial and strictly speaking non-existent principle that lies at the
core of being and to which the image refers. When that has been
touched, the function of the picture has been accomplished, and this
is what is really implied by the Zen dictum that all scripture is
vain. It is not enough to frame the absolute in words or forms;
Reviews of Books
327
it must be directly experienced. Mr. Binyon need not fear that
he has “ talked too much about the world of ideas in which they
(these works of art) were born”: he speaks of the “ unreality of
all but thought,” but we must also remember that all this art, the
Buddhist art in particular, whether hieratic or Zen, has ultimate
reference to the experience of a reality beyond the unreality of
thought itself.
Sometimes the author seems to have personal experience of a
characteristically Asiatic type. For example : “ On a s umm er
night, driving in an automobile, have you not sometimes been
startled and thrilled by the apparition of wayside flowers and
grasses suddenly isolated and luminous in the beams of the head-
lamps? A moment ago there was darkness. . . . Can they really
have been there in the dark, with all their intricate profusion of
form and color? You feel as if they had been suddenly created for
you yourself” (p. 134). Does not this correspond essentially to
Big Yeda V. 81. 2, where the Sun as maker ( kavi , “poet” in the
original sense of the Greek word as “ creator ”) sets free the varied
likenesses, or all the beauties, of things ( visva rupani prati
muhcate)”?
The Chinese Dragon has always been for the author a favorite
theme; the reader will recall The Flight of the Dragon. We think
him right when he connects the Dragon with the Tao concept ; not
that the tao in tao t'ieh, the dragon-mask on Chinese bronzes, has
any connection so far as the characters are concerned with Tao as
“Way,” but that, as he rightly remarks, the Dragon, which repre-
sents in Western thought the power of evil, is from the Chinese
point of view on the whole a beneficent power, in any case a mar-
vellous and splendid power, as being the protean source of all life,
the source alike of life and death. For the typically objectively
oriented consciousness the power of death is evil; but there is
another point of view according to which all that we call life is no
more than the wandering of a prodigal son. As Chuang Tzh ex-
presses it, “ How do I know that he who dreads to die is not as a
child who has lost the way and cannot find his home?” Many
religions, the majority perhaps, have conceived the form of deity
ab intra in the likeness of a serpent or dragon of protean versa-
tility, and only ab extra in angelic or anthropomorphic forms. As
soon as the dualistic and existential point of view is assumed, the
Powers of Light (Solar Hero) and Powers of Darkness (Dragon)
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are seen in clear-cut opposition; the Son is set over against the
uncanny Father. It is a special characteristic of Chinese meta-
physics to have dwelt rather upon the thought of this unitary
source or Father than upon that of a manifested and intelligible
Son; and this, whether consciously or by unconscious necessity, is
reflected in the persistent attachment to the dragon symbol proper
to Chinese culture. Considerations of this sort are by no means,
as might at first sight appear, irrelevant to the appreciation of art
even in its aesthetic aspects. The serpent-dragon plays, for ex-
ample, a no less significant part in Mayan art, and Spinden remarks
that “ the high esthetic qualities [of Mayan art] were wasted on
subjects that appear trivial to us”; while as he himself realizes,
“ When we can bring ourselves to feel the serpent symbolism of the
Mayan artists as we feel, for instance, the conventional halo that
crowns the ideal head of Christ, then we shall be able to recognize
the truly emotional qualities of Mayan sculpture. . . . The serpent
. . . appears as a general indication of divinity.” 1
Mr. Binyon’s references to Rajput painting are sympathetic and
felicitous. But we think him wrong in saying that “ it is mainly
concerned with everyday life ... the world they represent is small
and circumscribed compared with the world of the Japanese wood-
cuts” (pp. 192, 195). He seems to think of the “mystic” (or
rather metaphysical) significance of Rajput paintings as of some-
thing imported into their interpretation. But whereas the Ukiyoye
prints are really “ pictures of the transient world,” and were under-
stood by the Japanese themselves to be such, the Krishna paintings
were never in the same sense understood to have been representa-
tions of pastoral life made merely as such ; just as the Vedic
liturgies, pungent with the scent of cow-sheds, were never conceived
to have been merely the lyrical expressions of primitive ranchers. It
has been universally understood, and explicitly stated by some com-
mentators, that the Krishna legend is not historical but has to do
with the relation of the human soul to deity; and while because of
its vulgar associations the Japanese print had no appeal for the
connoisseur or philosopher, the Rajput painting appealed as much
to the connoisseur, the poet, and the metaphysician and theologian
as to the countryman, so that we cannot apply the designation
popular ” to both kinds of art in the same sense.
1 The Civilisation of Mexico, 1928, pp. 89, 95, 98.
Reviews of Books
329
The volume is in every respect well produced. We note on p. vii
the misprint Nizano for Nizam. The omission of any reference
to the developments of art in south-eastern Asia, viz. in Java,
Cambodia, and Siam, is rather surprising.
Ananda K. Coomaraswamy.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
The Hindu Conception of the Deity As Culminating in Ramanuja.
By Bharatan Kumarappa. London: Luzac and Co., 1934.
Pp. xv -f- 356. Price 12/ 6.
This thesis, accepted by the University of London for the
Ph. D. Degree, presents an interesting study of the Visistadvaita
(“ qualified Unity ”) as it plausibly threads its way in search of a
monotheistic principle of Grace through the Upanishads, the
Bhagavadgita, the Pancaratra and Puranic literature, and the
religion of the Alvars, culminating in the teaching of Ramanuja.
The author is to be commended for the careful and consistent
manner in which he proceeds through this maze of literary material.
The impression gathered is that the author conceives of an
unbroken, literary tradition, with modifications and contributions
along the way, for an undifferentiated deity of grace. He wisely
avoids the controversial subject of popular forces behind this
literary tradition and consequently does not concern himself with
a discussion of bhalcti per se. The statement that, “ The Gita’s
unique contribution lies in the thought that the Supreme Being of
the Upanisads, the all-pervading unknowable One whom the phi-
losophers proclaimed has assumed the form of Krsna, Arjuna’s
charioteer ” is a naive analysis, the result of the author’s point of
view and method of approach to the problem. This same doctrinal
naivete is observable at other points in the book.
It is interesting to note on page 89 the author’s cautious sug-
gestion that Visnu was a Sun deity even before the period of the
Brahmanas. But there can no longer be much doubt in the minds
of scholars that Visnu was definitely a Sun deity in the Rg Veda.
In his discussion of Ramanuja the author is forced to consider
the conflict of karma and grace, a subject which he avoids up to
that point. He merely presents Ramanuja’s point of view with no
personal suggestions on the problem, except that he does honestly
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call attention to the conflict, and the failure of Ramanuja to cope
adequately with a situation which he has encountered by claiming
Reality for the world. Similarly in general the procedure is not so
much critical as expository. Consequently much of this thesis con-
sists of quotations from translations of original sources. Less of
this and more of personal comments and interpretations would have
made the treatise more readable, especially for the general reader,
to whom the author has given his special attention in various
explanations of rather elementary matters as well as in an index
of subjects.
Horace I. Poleman.
University of Pennsylvania.
The Origin and Development of the State Cult of Confucius. By
John K. Shryock. New York: The American Historical
Association, Century, 1932. 298 pp.
The author modestly calls his work : “ an introductory study,”
and indeed, covering a period of two thousand years he could
scarcely hope to exhaust a subject that so vitally concerns China’s
cultural development. Yet, with this necessary reservation, he
has done much to destroy the erroneous notion, long prevalent,
that ever after Confucius’ death official worship has been paid to
him, or at least, that since the Han dynasty his foremost position
in the state religion has been unchallenged and unchanged. Dr.
Shryock shows that a careful scrutiny of the facts does not bear
out such views. The state worship of Confucius has undergone
fluctuations just as Confucianism itself has had its ups and downs.
He has grouped round his main problem such developments as
seem to have a more direct bearing on it ; it is however clear that a
true picture of the place of “the State cult of Confucius” can
only be obtained when we have a history of the development of
other official cults as well. The present book is a valuable contri-
bution towards such a history.
In tracing the origin of the worship of Confucius, the author’s
starting-point is very sound. He shows that worship of the
departed spirits in ancient China was strictly limited to the direct
descendants. For Confucius therefore to have gained a primary
position in the official cult is something extraordinary that
requires explanation.
Reviews of Books
331
Dr. Shryock devotes a good deal of attention to the first mention
of official worship of Confucius. In Sze-ma Ch'ien’s account of
Confucius’ Life ( Shih-chi , ch. 47, Mem. hist., V, p. 429) it is stated
that Kao-tsu performed a t'ai-lao sacrifice to Khing-tzu when he
passed through Lu. In the Ch‘ien-han-shu, ch. I, this information
is repeated and is dated in the 11th month of the last year of his
reign, b. c. 195. Dr. Shryock therefore calls this sacrifice “well
authenticated ” but fails to observe an important point. The Pen-
chi of the Shih-chi, with which the Ti-chi of the Han-shu runs
almost parallel, lacks that notice. Why ? It is idle to suppose that
the text is corrupt and that the sentence has dropped out. If at
any time there should have been reason to suspect corruption of the
text, the scholars would certainly not have neglected the occasion
to bring the Shih-chi into harmony with the text of the Ch'ien-
han-shu on this important point. The fact that they have not done
so guarantees the text as it stands. Since Sze-ma Ch £ ien does
mention it towards the end of his biography of Confucius, why does
he omit this mention in the Annals, considering the care he gener-
ally takes to have Annals and Biography correspond exactly as to
facts ? Surely, if the records contained this notice, he cannot hare
omitted it because he thought the fact of little importance. There
would indeed have been good reason to insert it. Immediately after
the mention of Kao-tsu’s sacrifice the Ch‘ien-han-shu records Kao-
tsu’s measure with regard to the sacrifices on the tombs of extinct
feudal families ; Sze-ma Ch'ien has the same notice. From a Con-
fucian point of view it looks ill that Kao-tsu did take care of
these feudal princes, including even Shih Huang-ti, and, according
to the reading in the Shih-chi, apparently did nothing to show
respect for Confucius. The writer of the Ch‘ien-han-shu must have
been glad to remedy this situation by inserting the mention of
Kao-tsu’s sacrifice to Confucius, which, no doubt, he took from
Confucius’ biography in the Shih-chi. In Pan Ku’s time it would
not do to have the first Han Emperor show some interest in the
worship of Confucius.
If, however, Sze-ma Ch'ien’s omission of this fact in the Annals
cannot be regarded as accidental, but means that the records made
no mention of it, it makes his reference to it in Confucius’ bio-
graphy itself suspect. This suspicion is confirmed by another
circumstance. At the end of the biography a genealogy of Con-
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fucius’ descendants is given, concluding with K f ung An-kuo, his
son and grandson. Of K c ung An-kuo it is said that he was a
po-sTiih in the service of the “present” emperor (Wu-ti) and
that he died young ( 2$S ). We know indeed ( Ch'ien-han-shu,
eh. 88) that he perished in the sorcery affair of B. c. 91; this has
already led Chavannes {Mem. hist., Y, p. 434) to observe that
therefore this part of the Shih-chi must have been written between
91 and 87, the year of Wu-ti’s death. We do not know the date of
K‘ung An-kuo’s birth; in view of the early marriages of Chinese
it is possible that a person who is said to have died young, had
already a grandson, although the probability may be against it. In
the latter case the date of writing would have to be placed some
years after 91. Without however pressing this point, we may con-
cede that the text was written in 91. But even so we cannot escape
from the difficult question as to whether Sze-ma Chfien was still
writing in that year or not.
In a recent article in Asia Major 1 Fr. Jager has given a good
summary of some of the views that have in modern times been
expounded by Chinese scholars on this matter. Within the scope of
this review it is of course impossible to treat this problem ade-
quately. Suffice it to recall the fact that the statements made in
Sze-ma Chfien’s so-called “auto-biography,” tzu-hsii 2 {Shih-chi
ch. 130) are contradictory, and they have led a radical scholar like
Ts’ in Shih 3 to assert that Sze-ma Ch‘ien ceased writing in 122 ;
others like Liang yii-sheng 4 regard 104 as the final year with some
additions down to 95, others again like Li K { uei-hui 5 accept the year
95. It will be recalled that Sze-ma Chfien suffered mutilation in
98. The CVien-hcin-shu ch. 62 contains a letter, written by Sze-
ma Ch‘ien to his friend Jen-an 6 who was one of the victims of the
calamity of 91. Chavannes, with older Chinese scholars, after
some hesitation, admitted it as genuine {Mem. hist I, p. XLII).
It is however suspicious that it contains quotations from the Auto-
1 Vol. IX, 1933, pp. 21-37, Der hensige Stand der Schi-ki-forschung.
’■Si® in Shih-chi-t‘an-yiian gs (1910).
* 15= 3£ $i in his Shih -e^i-chih-yi ^ (1787).
’ ^ ^ ' n k' 3 Shih-chi-chiieh-yi in The Tsing Hua Journal, IV
(1927). pp. 1175-1215.
’ft £
Reviews of Books
333
biography and appears only in the Ch'ien-han-shu. In the Shih-
chi itself events of the year 91 or thereafter are not recorded
except in a few instances, in passing references that look entirely
like later additions. I cannot follow Jager, when, on Wang Kuo-
wei’s authority, he seems inclined to accept the statement about
Li Kuang-li’s submission to the Hsiung-nu (b. c. 90) as authentic.
Cf. Jager, loc. cit., p. 34. In speaking of K £ ung An-kuo’s work
on the Shu-ching, for example, in ch. 121, Sze-ma Chfien does not
mention his death.
This is very important. With practically no evidence to sup-
port the view that Sze-ma Chfien wrote parts of the Shih-chi
as late as 91, our suspicions against the end of Confucius’ biography
are certainly not allayed. I have however no wish to infer anything
more than the probability that the text has been tampered with.
In any ease it is important to observe that the notice about Kao-
tsu’s sacrifice is not in the Annalistic Eecords but forms part of a
narrative, written either by Sze-ma Ch'ien himself or by some one
else under the influence of the Confucian school. If Sze-ma Ch‘ien
himself wrote it, his enthusiasm for Confucius has made him accept
it without verifying it from the Annals. If he had done so, he
would have noticed that, in the first place, it was unlikely that
Kao-tsu should have honoured a local worthy with such an im-
portant sacrifice as that of t’ai-lao, reserved only for the most
solemn occasions, and in the second place the circumstances were
such as to make the tradition even more suspect. Kao-tsu was on
his way home from his expedition against Ch‘ing Pu; he had been
wounded by a stray arrow, as both the Shih-chi and the Han-shu
testify ; on the way he fell ill, which illness after a few months led
to his death. It seems unlikely, though it may not have been im-
possible, that he should have interrupted his journey under such
circumstances.
In Dr. Shryock’s discussion of Sze-ma Ch‘ien’s account, there is
another point that deserves correction. He writes : “ the historian
says that he visited the tomb and saw the clothes, lute, chariot,
and books of Confucius. If he saw the books, it is a pity that he
did not give a list, and it is also hard to understand why, if they
had been always preserved in a mortuary temple, the Han scholars
had such a hard time in fixing the text.” This however is charging
Sze-ma Chfien with more than he actually says. In the narrative
7
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it is stated, that the objects named were preserved in the hall that
had been turned into a memorial temple by later generations.
What Sze-ma Ch'ien himself had seen, he describes in his final
verdict on Confucius as follows : “ When I went to Lu, I saw
Chung-ni’s mortuary temple, his chariot, his clothes and his ritual
objects, 7 and I saw the scholars at fixed dates perform ceremonies
at his house.” The books, significantly, are not mentioned. In
the “autobiography” {Mem. hist., I, p. xxx, Shih-chi , ch. 130;
also Ch‘ien-han-sliu, ch. 62). Sze-ma Chfien states that on this
visit to Lu “ he saw the relics of Confucius "(ULfii a)-
No mention is made of “ books.” This is an important difference.
I believe that the expression shu used in the Biography should
not be understood as referring in a general way to Confucius’ writ-
ings, but that it indicates definitely the Shu-ching. It should he
read in conjunction with the statement in ch. 121 about K‘ung
An-kuo’s Shu-ching in ancient characters, where it is said, that
“ the K‘ung family had a shang-shu in ancient characters ” (-fL
.ft W In] iSr ) - It is not certain when this text was “ dis-
covered.” The accounts of its find on the occasion of the pulling
down of Confucius’ house are contradictory; Pelliot 8 believes that
it is a legend of the second half of the first century b. c. Sze-ma
Chfien in any case knows nothing about it. When he visited Lu,
after his twentieth year, the existence of the Shu was apparently
still unknown in the K‘ung family. K‘ung An-kuo, according to
the Ch r ien-han-shu , ch. 36 presented his text to the throne “ after
the T'ien-han period ” i. e. after b. c. 97. Sze-ma Chfien knew
him and is supposed to have questioned him on this text. 9 This
would presumably have been about that same time. The word
shu in the narrative would therefore, indicate that it was written
after Sze-ma Ch‘ien had become acquainted with K‘ung An-kuo’s
text. In recalling what he himself had seen, however, he omits
all mention of shu. If one admits that later hands have tampered
with the text, one can well understand why such an addition as the
word shu should have been made, once the legend around the
book was started. From a stylistic point of view it deserves atten-
7 Doubtless they were fakes !
8 Le Chou King es le Chang Chou Che Wen ( M6moires concermant Vasie
oriental , II, p. 136) .
9 Ch'ien-han-shu, ch. 88.
Reviews of Boolcs
335
tion that the rhythm is imperfect in its enumeration of five nouns ;
the last one looks as if it were tagged on. Immediately before, the
text is admittedly corrupt; either the characters ti- tzu have been
displaced or they should be omitted altogether. This is additional
proof that the reliability of this part of the text is not above
suspicion.
A few words should be said on the “ ceremonies.” In the Bio-
graphy of Confucius it is stated ; “ Prom generation to generation
the custom having been transmitted in Lu to perform sacrifices at
fixed dates of the year at the tomb of Confucius, the scholars also
performed the rites of the District Banquet and the Archery Bout
at the tomb of Confucius.” Let us first consider the second half
of the sentence. Sze-ma Chfien, in relating what he had seen, says
that “the scholars at fixed dates performed ceremonies at his
(Confucius’) house.” For reasons indicated above, Sze-ma
Chden’s personal account should be considered as more trustworthy
than the narrative in the Biography. In the preceding sentence in
Biography the word “ tomb ” occurs twice ; graphically it is almost
exactly the same as the character for “ house,” so that contamina-
tion is very easy. A simple text-correction is therefore obvious and
has indeed been suggested by Yen Jo-chii ff|] jgr 1$ (1636-1704)
in his Ssu-shu-shih-ti-hsii P9 ^ ^ $J. 10 The character
“ tomb ” is a mistake for ^ “ house.” Yen admits that the rites,
performed by the scholars, took place in (the courts of) the house;
this connects the statement up very naturally with the following
one of the halls having been converted into an ancestral temple.
Should we admit, then, that there were two centres in which
Confucius’ memory was perpetuated: one at the tomb, where his
descendants sacrificed and another in the hall of what was supposed
to be his house, where the scholars met for their ceremonies ? It is
possible ; yet the text, it seems to me, suggests something else. Yen
wishes to make the correction of “ tomb ” into “ house ” only once.
This is arbitrary. To read “ tomb ” in the first half and “ house ”
in the second half of the sentence would create a very forced anti-
thesis. The sentence is closely knit together by means of erh
and fa yi “ also.” Obviously the two clauses emphasize that two
different groups performed certain ceremonies at the same place.
10 Cf. Liang Yii-sheng §£ X[£ jjjjg, Shih-chi-chih-yi gji * || ch. 25.
p. 29.
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If we accept corruption of “ house ” into “ tomb ” we must accept it
for the entire sentence and therefore make the correction twice.
Ku Yen-wu ( M !£ 5S 1613-1682) has in fact already suggested. 11
that the sacrifices also took place in the house and he thought that
Sze-ma Clr'ien had probably misunderstood the situation. It did
not occur to him to make the text-correction and his suggestion
has not been accepted by other text -critical scholars. Yet on purely
philological grounds I incline very much to this interpretation.
I want to add one more suggestion. The sentence is followed by
the statement : “ the tomb of Confucius is large one ch'ing.” This,
with its clumsy repetition of the words “the tomb of Confucius”
seems to me almost certainly to he an addition by some commentator
who, being puzzled by the mention of archery bouts etc., on the
tomb, wanted to explain that (in his time no doubt; when?) the
tomb occupied a very large area.
Apart from the traditional story therefore of the disciples having
dwelt on the tomb, the tomb itself, as a center for worship, dis-
appears. Neither in the statement about Kao-tsu, nor in that of
the visit which the officials are supposed to pay before they take
up their official duties, is the tomb mentioned. Chavannes has in
each case added this word in brackets. Shryock has, unconsciously,
I suppose, made the correction of ip “tomb” into % “house”
himself three times in the text of the Shih-chi, printed in Appen-
dix IY p. 271, which is rather amusing.
Dr. Shryock traces the vicissitudes of the Confucian cult through-
out the centuries in a way that is, in the main, exact. It would
seem that his views are somewhat influenced by the orthodox school :
the Sung Confucians are nearer to the spirit of Confucius him-
self than the scholars of the Han period were” (p. 152). Re-
formers have always claimed to go back to the views of the Master.
I wonder if they did! It is true that the Sung school did try
“to free themselves from Buddhist and Taoist thought” (ihid.)
but the Chinese mind by that time was so profoundly impregnated
by both that its very structure had been affected. No efforts of the
Sung school could extirpate that influence.
The important fact that from 720-1530 the objects of worship
were images, is well brought out (p. 138). Yet it is inexact to say
that images have entirely disappeared. Even up to modern times in
1 In his Jih-chih-lu g quoted in 8hih-chi-chih-yi loc. cit.
Reviews of Boolcs
337
the temple at Chfii-fu itself there was a large image of Confucius ; 12
more examples could be given, although, of course, they were excep-
tions to the general rule. 13
The list of names of all the scholars that have been associated
with the worship given in the Appendix is very useful. Dr.
Shryock states (p. 263) that a number of the names he gives do not
appear on the list given by Dore ( Reclierches etc.) This is not
quite true. Only No. 1 of those given by Shryock in the Eastern
cloisters and No. 3o of those mentioned in the Western cloisters do
not figure in Dore’s list, which gives an earlier enumeration. The
order however is different, east and west having been frequently
interchanged and it would have been worth while to examine why
this is so. The second character of No. 17 in the Eastern Wu p.
242 is not read Mei (which is written )§ ) but Chien )|) , 14
There is a strange note on p. 194 affirming that the expression
j§| miao the generic term for “ temple,” is commonly used by Budd-
hists and Taoists. This is certainly not true. The common desig-
nation for Buddhist temples is ssu, for Taoist temples
Icuati, while miao is used for the temples associated with the state-
cult: K‘ung-tzii-miao (Wen-miao), Kuan-ti-miao, Ch‘eng-huang-
miao.
Chi-ku, mentioned in an extract from Biot, on p. 69, whom Dr.
Shryock has been unable to identify, is doubtless the great con-
mentator Yen Shih-ku. The collection of essays, mentioned in
passing in a note on p. 109, called Jih-chih-lu, is by the famous Ku
Yen-wu mentioned above. The translation of the title fg !?-
Shao-sheng-hou on p. 129, as: “Successful and Holy Marquis”
is wrong. Shao indicates the ancestral line, and the translation
12 See a photo in A. Tschepe, Konfucius, I Teil, Sein Lebes, 1910 (frontis-
piece) .
13 [Professor Duvvendak has apparently misunderstood a statement made
on p. 190, which says, “ The images, with a few exceptions in private temples,
. were never renewed.” The author was speaking of the state temples,
and considered the Ch‘ii-fu temple as the property of the K'ung family.
J. K. S.]
14 1 regret that a casual remark made by me several years ago in con-
versation about tablets added to the worship of Confucius during the
republic has caused the author some trouble. I cannot verify now
whether the addition he mentions on p. 260 corresponds with the notes 1
made at the time in Peking on a visit to the temple.
338
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therefore should be something like : “ Marquis who transmits the
Sage-ness in direct descent.”
It would be well if Dr. Shryock could conform to the customary
romanisation, rather than follow his provincial dialect. The diffi-
culties and confusions in romanisation are already great enough
and there is no need to make matters more complicated by pro-
vincialisms.
J. J. L. Duyvendak.
University of Leyden.
L’ Adoption Universelle des Caracteres Latins. Dossiers de la
Cooperation Intellectuelle. Societe des Nations,
Institut International de Cooperation Intellectuelle.
Paris: 1934. Pp. 197.
This volume consists of a series of reports by competent scholars
of progress made in the adoption of the Latin alphabet by nations
which until relatively modern times had made no use of it. Nine-
teen countries are considered. There is also a brief paper on the
romanization of writing, with suggestions for the improvement of
the alphabet, by Professor Denzel Carr, a young American who
holds a chair at the University of Cracow. The reports are
exceedingly interesting, and will be of value to students of
linguistics.
Linguists are primarily interested in spoken languages, but the
alphabet is concerned with written language. In all languages
which are written phonetically, or which have had no written forms,
as in the case of the Bantu languages, the chief problems are how to
convince the people that the prevalence of the Latin alphabet
justifies the initial difficulties of its adoption, and whether the
letters of the Latin alphabet can be used to render acceptably sounds
which do not exist in European languages. It may be said that the
Latin alphabet is successfully overcoming these problems.
But in the case of languages which are written ideographically,
rather than phonetically, a new factor enters, which western
scholars seldom consider. Is a phonetic system of writing as valu-
able as an ideographic system? Westerners assume that the
former is the more valuable, but without a fair consideration of the
problem. The chief advantage of phonetic writing is that it is
Reviews of Books
339
easy to learn. The advantage of ideographic writing is that it
permits written language to triumph over differences of dialect
and even of language structure, as well as the fluctuations of
pronunciation. In the case of China, where an ideographic writing
has been used for a long time, a scholar who has learned it can
consult the original sources of the literature of his race for 3,000
years. He can do, after learning one system of ideographic writ-
ing, what a western scholar can do only after mastering a dozen
languages. The outstanding modern instance of ideographic writ-
ing is Chinese. It permits the uniform writing of dialects whose
spoken forms are so different as to be mutually unintelligible. In
Japan, it has been largely used to write a language which is struc-
turally quite different from Chinese. It is the greatest single
factor in the continuity of Chinese civilization. The question of the
abandonment of this ideographic writing for a phonetic form in
order that the masses may learn to read in two years less time than
they could learn their present system is a very serious one, and the
answer is not so simple as we sometimes think. In the opinion of
the reviewer, the greatest calamity which could happen to the
Chinese people would be for them to adopt a phonetic system of
writing.
It is interesting to notice that the reports from China, Japan,
and Annam, particularly the first country, recount many difficulties,
but do not touch the heart of the question. Do we not profit our-
selves by a limited use of ideographic writing? We write French
with the Latin alphabet, but if we really wrote French as it is
pronounced at present, it would be much more difficult to read
than it is. Our civilization has unquestionably advanced over that
of the Greeks and Eomans in two directions, science and music.
In both cases, our progress has been made possible by our use of
two generally accepted ideographic forms of writing, the symbols
of mathematics, and musical notation. We can understand the
essentials of Euclid without a knowledge of Greek. We can play
a composition of Kimsky Korsakov without a knowledge of Russian.
It would be quite possible to have an ideographic writing which
would not eliminate all differences between spoken languages, but
which would make it possible to overcome such differences much
more easily than they can be overcome at present.
340
Reviews of Books
Ancient Siamese Government and Administration. By H. G.
Quaeitch Wales. London : Quabitch, 1934. 263 pp.
This is an excellent book. It is strictly limited in its aim, and
stays within those limits. Among the subjects considered are the
monarchy, the classes of the people, the central and provincial
administrations, the army, legislation, justice, finances, and the
church. A bibliography and index are provided, but no map. The
author assumes a good deal of knowledge of Siam on the part of
his readers, such as acquaintance with the history and religion of
the country. In this way he is able to treat his subjects adequately
within a limited space. Even so, his accounts of such large mat-
ters as Siamese law are necessarily sketchy.
One or two minor criticisms may be made. A reader un-
acquainted with Siamese has some difficulty with the large number
of words which are left untranslated. Some of the assumptions
which the author makes concerning the early history of the Tai,
such as that the Tai were originally a “ race ” of primitive
Mongolian nomads, do not rest on a very firm basis. Tai is a group
of allied languages, not a race, and no one knows the origin of the
people. The author emphasizes the changes in Siamese administra-
tion and culture brought about by Khmer influence after the
capture of Ankor Thom in 1431, but says little about Burmese in-
fluences. Indian influence is treated fully.
Hie author’s interest is strictly confined to government and
administration. He has already made a study of State Ceremonies.
It is to be hoped that he will be able to continue his productive
work, and make further studies in a civilization which is too little
considered by scholars, especially in America.
Chinesisch und Tai. Bv K. Wrxir. Copenhagen: Levin and
Muxksgaabd, 1934. 260 pp.
This volume, a study in the similarities between Chinese and
the Tai languages, is number 3 of volume XX of the Historisk-
Filologiske Meddelelser, given at the Kgl. Danske Yidenskabernes
Selskab. The first numbers of this volume were on the word order
in modern French, by Andreas Blinkenberg, and a textual criticism
of the Skjaldekvad, by Finnur Jonsson. Xo. 3 is written in
Reviews of Boohs
341
German. All words are given in phonetic script, and in the case
of Chinese words, the characters are given. There is no index to
this number.
The introduction gives an excellent resume of the recent work
of Karlgren and Maspero in reconstructing the sounds of archaic
Chinese, giving particular attention to their theories of the use of l
as an initial sound, and as an infix. Comparisons are made with
the Tibetan-Burmese group of languages. A section discusses the
vocalization of the Indo-Chinese langauges. The Tai languages
considered are Siamese, Lao, Shan, Ahom, Black Tai, ISTung, and
Dioi. The last two are spoken in the Chinese province of Kuangsi.
The interrelation of sounds in these languages is considered, and
their transcription. As in the case of the Chinese dialects, the
tones not only differ from place to place, but the pronunciation of
classes of tones differs also. For example, in two dialects of Lao, the
first two tones, the even and the falling, are interchanged. The
author discusses the relation of the tone systems of the Tai lan-
guages and Chinese. Special sections are devoted to word forma-
tion with infixes in Siamese, and to traces of the same phenomena
in Chinese, particularly in connection with the sounds Z and r.
This last is still debatable ground, as no such infixes exist in
modern Chinese. The investigation throughout the book is tho-
rough, and the book itself is a valuable contribution to a difficult
subject which has not yet been sufficiently investigated.
Painting in the Far East. By Laurence Bin vox. Fourth edi-
tion. JSew York: Longmans Green: London: Arnold,
1934. xvi -f- 304 pages; 41 illustrations in color.
This standard work was first published in 1.908. It was intended
as an introduction to the subject, primarily for the man of general
culture and interest in art, rather than for the specialist on the
Far East. Its purpose was to awaken in the West an appreciation
of Far Eastern painting, and it remains the best book in English
for this purpose. It supplements the work of H. A. Giles, Waley,
Siren, and Morrison. Charmingly written by a master of the
English langauge, beautifully illustrated by reproductions of the
art which is discussed, and adequately printed and bound, this
edition reflects great credit upon all who were concerned with it.
342
Reviews of Boolcs
Mr. Binyon has kept in touch with recent work in his field, has
made corrections and done some rewriting, hut in general the text
has not been materially changed. Six new illustrations have
replaced ones used in the earlier editions.
It should be remembered that while this book is scholarly, it is
not intended primarily for the scholar. Mr. Binyon does not
appear familiar with the work of Coomaraswamy, March, and the
work of Brown and others on Jain paintings. He slides very
smoothly over the much disputed question of Greek influence and
the Mathura art. It will be a matter of opinion whether he gives
full credit to the influence of Buddhist painting in China, and he
certainly differs from Laufer on this point. Scholars will regret
that he does not give the Chinese and Japanese words, and more
quotations from works on painting in those languages. Neverthe-
less, the book is one that all students of the Far East will wish to
own, and it is the best of all books for the layman.
J. K. Sheyock.
Philadelphia.
Notes of the Society
343
NOTES OF THE SOCIETY
Professor Ignazio Guidi, Honorary Member of the Society since 1893,
died in Home on Thursday, April 18. at the age of 91. A brief account of
his writings, prepared by Professor Richard Gottheil, will be published in
the December issue of the Journal.
Certain errors which appeared in the Journal 55, second cover page,
have been corrected in this issue.
NOTES OF OTHER SOCIETIES
AMERICAN" COUNCIL OF LEARNED SOCIETIES
Grants in Ain of Research
The American Council of Learned Societies is able to offer a limited
number of small grants to individual scholars to assist them in carrying
on definite projects of research in the humanistic sciences: philosophy;
philology, literature, and linguistics; archaeology and art; musicology;
history, especially all branches of cultural and intellectual history, but
exclusive of those branches that are essentially social, economic, and
political history; and auxiliary sciences.
Grants are designed to assist research by scholars w T ho are trained in
scientific methods of investigation. The maximum of the grants is three
hundred dollars. Small additional allowances may, however, be made at
the discretion of the Committee to meet unusual expenses involved in the
research; the nature of such expenses must be indicated in the application.
Applicants must be citizens of the United States or Canada or perma-
nently employed or domiciled therein; they must be actually engaged in
the research for which they request assistance, and must personally be in
need of the aid for which they apply.
Applicants must possess a doctor’s degree or its equivalent in training,
study, and experience. No grants will be made to assist in the fulfilment
of requirements for any academic degree.
Applications must be made in duplicate upon special forms provided
for that purpose, and must be mailed to the Secretary for Fellowships and
Grants. American Council of Learned Sicieties, 907 Fifteenth Street, Wash-
ington, D. C., not later than January 15. Awards will be made in April.
344
Notes of Other Societies ; Personalia
SUMMER SEMINAR IN ARABIC AND ISLAMIC STUDIES
The six weeks’ Summer Seminar in Arabic and Islamic Studies, sponsored
by the American Council of Learned Societies and held at Princeton
University, concluded its sessions Wednesday, July 31. The Seminar had
a limited registration of 33 and drew scholars from 19 educational insti-
tutions in seven nations. Its enrollment was composed principally of
members of college teaching staffs with a few missionaries and advanced
graduate students.
Dr. Philip K. Hitti, Associate Professor of Semitic Literature in Prince-
ton, was the director of the Seminar and Dr. Walter L. Wright, Jr.,
Assistant Professor of History in Princeton and President-elect of Robert
College, Turkey, was secretary. In addition to these two, the faculty con-
sisted of Dr. Mehmet Aga-Oglu, Research Professor of Islamic Art in the
University of Michigan, Dr. Muhammad Simsar, of the University of Penn-
sylvania, Dr. Nabih A. Faris, of Jerusalem, and Edward Jurji, of Baghdad.
Men prominent in various fields delivered special lectures at the Seminar.
Among these lecturers were Dr. Julian Morgenstern, President of Hebrew
Union College, in Cincinnati ; Dr. Nicholas N. Martinovitch, former pro-
fessor in Petrograd University, Russia; Dr. Richard Ettinghausen, of the
American Institute for Persian Art and Archaeology; Dr. M. S. Dimand,
Chief of the Department of Near Eastern Art of the Metropolitan Museum
of Art; Dr. John G. Hazam, formerly of Stanford University and the
University of Oregon; Dr. Martin Sprengling, Professor of Semitics in the
University of Chicago.
Also Dr. Isaac Husik, Professor of Philosophy in the University of
Pennsylvania; Dr. James A. Montgomery, Professor of Semitics in the
University of Pennsylvania; Dr. Walter T. Swingle, of the United States
Department of Agriculture; Dr. Samuel M. Zwemer, Professor of the
Historj of Religion in the Princeton Theological Seminary; and Professors
C. Rufus Morey and Albert M. Friend, Jr., of the Princeton Department of
Art and Archaeology.
PERSONALIA
The annual Haskell Lectures for the year 1935-1936 will be given at
erlin under the auspices of the Graduate School of Theology during the
first two weeks of October next. The lecturer will be Dr. Heinrich Frick,
ro esfior TheoIo ?y a "d Director of the International Institute for the
Study of Religions at the University of Marburg, Germanv. His subject
will be The World Beyond and the Last Judgment; A Comparative Study
J sc a 0 0, J’J ast and Rest. Further information may be obtained
from Professor Clarence H. Hamilton, Oberlin, Ohio.
PROCEEDINGS
OF THE
American Oriental §s>octetj>
AT THE MEETING AT ANN ARBOR, 1935
The sessions of the One Hundred and Forty Seventh Meeting
of the Society were held at the University of Michigan, on Wednes-
day, Thursday and Friday, April 24th, 25th, and 26th, 1935. All
the sessions were held in the Alumni Memorial Hall. The follow-
ing members were present at one or more sessions :
Adams, Miss
Driscoll, Miss
McDowell
Aga-Oglu
Edgerton, F.
McGovern
Aga-Oglu, Mrs.
Edgerton, W. F.
MaeLean
Barret
Elisseef
Matthews, I. G.
Bechtel
Emeneau
May
Bender
Engberg
Mayer, L. A.
Black, Miss
Everett, Mrs.
Meek
Blair, Miss
Folkman
Michelson
Blank
Gardner
Monroe
Bobrinskoy
Geers
Moore, Miss
Bonner
Glueck
Morgenstern
Bowman
Graves
Nakarai
Braidwood
Hahn, Miss
Olmstead
Braden
Hall, Miss A. H.
Orlinsky
Briggs
Hall, Miss H. B.
Price
Buckler
Hall, K. B.
Purves
Bull
Halloek, R. T.
Pyatt
Butin
Hamilton
Reisman. Mrs.
Buttenwieser
Hardy, R. S.
Riggs
Clark, W. E.
Harris, Z. S.
Rogers, Mrs.
Clendenin
Hubbard. Miss
Ruthven
Cook, Miss
Hughes
Sakanishi, Miss
Coomaraswamy
Hummel. A. W.
Sanders
Crarv
Hussey. Miss
Schmidt. N.
Cross, Miss
Irwin
Schoch
DeLong
Jacobson
Schurman, Miss
Debevoise
Johnson, S. E.
Sellers
DeWitt, A. S.
Kent
Seraph in
DeWitt, Mrs.
T.ewy
Shambaugh. Miss
Dubberstein
McCullough
Shier, Miss
345
346
Proceedings
Shrvock
Simcox
Smeaton, Miss
Speiser
Sprengling
Stanton
Staples
Sturtevant
Trowbridge, Mrs.
Van Ingen, Miss
Waterman
Webber, Mrs.
Wilson, J. A.
Winnett
Worrell Total 105
Prof. Louis C. Karpinski, of the TJniyersitv of Michigan, was
a guest of the Society at one of the sessions and was invited to
read a paper.
THE FIPST SESSION
At 10.10 A. m. on Wednesday, the first session of the meeting
was called to order hy President Poland G. Kent in the auditorium
of the Alumni Memorial Hall. Reading of the minutes of the
meeting in Philadelphia in 1934 was dispensed with as these were
already in print (Journal 54. 321). There were no corrections
and the minutes were approved.
Professor Waterman, Chairman of the Committee on Arrange-
ments, presented his committee’s report in the form of a printed
program. It was announced that the center of social activities
was the Michigan Union, which had courteously offered its facilities
to the members of the Society. It was also announced that the
University Club and the Women’s League extended their privileges
to the members. The following exhibits were announced:
In Alumni Memorial Hall: Tibetan art, Persian miniatures, Islamic
calligraphic specimens, old Japanese road maps.
In the Museum of Classical Archaeology: Finds from Karanis and
Seleucia on the Tigris.
In the General Library: Illuminated Islamic Manuscripts and Arabic
mathematical manuscripts; Greek and Coptic papyri.
In the Museum of Anthropology , Museums Building : The Far Eastern
collections.
Report of the Corresponding Secretary
The Corresponding Secretary, Professor LeRoy C. Barret, pre-
sented the following report:
The statistical summary of membership is not wholly comforting. There
are now on the list 638 names, a net loss of 118. At, and since Lie last
meeting, 1 has been reinstated, 62 haye been elected to corporate member-
ship (14 of whom did not accept and so were not put on the list of
members), 27 have resigned, and death has removed 9. The number of
of the Society at Ann Arbor
347
new members added during the past year (4S) is greater than the number
added in the preceding year (30), the number lost by death and resignation
(36) is less than in the preceding year (58) : the large loss is due to
members dropped.
No events of unusual sort can be recorded as features of the activities of
the Society during the last year. That there is some increase of interest
concerning the Orient on the part of the general public seems clear, and
that there is increasing interest of a scholarly sort is, I believe, a reasonable
opinion. The Society is taking definite steps toward a more vigorous
activity, and a proposal for revision of the constitution is ready for the
consideration of the members.
During the year Professor A. V. Williams Jackson represented the
Society at the exercises at Columbia University, marking the 1000th
anniversary of the death of Firdausi; and Professors Kent and Speiser
represented the Society at the annual meeting of the American Academy
of Political and Social Science in Philadelphia.
The Corresponding Secretary attended the Eleventh Annual Conference
of Secretaries, held in Boston on January 31st in connection with the
meeting of the American Council of Learned Societies devoted to Humanistic
Studies. The most important matters discussed by the secretaries con-
cerned the continuation of their conference and a possible expansion of
its make-up; the extended rotograph service of the Modern Languages
Association, the ACLS plan of assistance to publication, and near-print
methods of publication.
We now record briefly the names and services of those members whose
deaths have been reported since the last meeting:
Basil H. Chamberlain, for forty years professor of Japanese and
Philology at the University of Tokyo, was a master of the Japanese
language and its dialects and had published a number of books on phases
of Japanese literature and culture. He published also a number of works
in French. He died on Feb. 15, 1935 in Geneva, Switzerland, where he
lived in retirement.
John S. Chandleb, missionary of the Congregational Church for 55
years in India, for many years devoted his abilities as a linguist to teach-
ing and to translation of English works into Tamil; he compiled a Tamil
dictionary and worked on a revision of the Bible in Tamil. For his
linguistic work the Indian Government bestowed on him the Kaisar-i-
Hind medal. He died at Kodai Kanal, June 19, 1934, at the age of 85.
Valdemar T. Hammer, successful manufacturer, was from boyhood an
ardent collector, and as a development of the collector’s zeal he became
interested in classical and oriental archaeology. He was glad and eager to
share his pleasure in his hobbies with others old or young, and in a
delightfullv gentle way he spread abroad in a large community a beneficient
influence. Death took him suddenly on April 7, 1935, as he was walking
on his estate at Branford, Connecticut.
348
Proceedings
Berthold Laufejs, curator of anthropology at the Field Museum, was
a distinguished student of race, language, culture and history, particularly
with respect to the Chinese people. He was a productive scholar and our
Society has had high regard for him not only as a member, hut as former
president. He died September 13, 1934, at the age of 60.
Benjamin March, lecturer on Far Eastern art at the University of
Michigan, curator at the Detroit Institute of Arts, was an eager student
and teacher in the field to which he was devoting himself, i. e. Asiatic art,
especially Chinese. It was due largely to his urging that the Society meets
in Ann Arbor this year. His death is a heavy loss to his personal friends
and to the Society. He died December 14, 1934 aged 35.
Adolph S. Ochs was the maker of a great newspaper, but that was only
one expression of the noble ideals which moved him, for he was a phi-
lanthropist in the essential meaning of the word. Here and in foreign
lands his death has been greatly mourned, and we also know that a worthy
member of our Society has departed. Died April 8, 1935.
Kurt Sethe, Egyptologist, was one whose achievement put him among
the greatest scholars in his field. Energetic and tireless, endowed with
splendid mental powers, he ranged through the field of Egyptian philology
to which he made many and varied contributions, and left his colleagues
with a sense of irreparable loss. He died suddenly on July 6, 1934, at the
age of 64.
Ludwig Vogelstein, man of business, philanthropist, and a lay leader
of Reformed Judaism in this country, his adopted land, was a director of
the Jewish Publication Society of Philadelphia, member of the board of
governors of Hebrew Union College of Cincinnati, active in the work of
the National Council for Jewish Education: indeed, he was interested in
every activity tending to improve human welfare. He died after a very
brief illness on September 23, 1934, at the age of 63.
James Haughton Woods, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Harvard
University, was a student and expounder of Oriental philosophies, had
been chairman of the division of philosophy at Harvard, twice exchange
professor at the Sorbonne. He was a member of many learned Societies
and was known as author, translator, and editor. Died suddenly in Tokyo,
January 14, 1935. J
Irvlng F Wood, teacher of Biblical literature, held positions in Jaffna
o ege in Ceylon, the University of Chicago, and Smith College, and was
visiting professor in institutions in China. Japan, and Palestine. His
scholarly pubhcations Mere primarily concerned with the literature of the
Bible. Died August 29, 1934.
accepted m0ti ° n ^ ° f th ® Corres P ondin g Secretary was
Tribute was paid to the late Mr. March by Professor Waterman.
of the Society at Ann Arbor
349
Beport of the Teeasubee
In the absence of the Treasurer, Professor John C. Archer, the
Corresponding Secretary presented his report as follows:
Receipts and Expenditures for the Year Ending December 31, 1934.
Receipts
Cash Balance, Jan. 1, 1934 $14,904.18
Dues (from 461 members) 2,560.63
Life Memberships (2) 175.00
Sales: Journal (net) 470.46
American Oriental and Monograph Series
(net) 188.90
Library of Ancient Semitic Inscriptions
(net*) 21.62
Ibid., on acc’t (Pfeiffer) 500.00
Catalogues of Library 6.21
Journal reprints 20.20
Author’s corrections 21.25
Interest :
Yale University (cash on deposit) 579.51
Mortgage @ 6 % 360.00
Minneapolis G. E. Co 50.00
Virginia Bys 50.00
Minn. G. E. Co. bond paid 1,000.00
Justin E. Abbott estate 637.50
The Year’s receipts $6,641.28
Grand Total — — $21,545.46
The Journal:
Expenditures
Printing $2,316.50
Paper, type, etc 190.59
Reprints 78.60
“ additional 80.20
Corrections 71.21
Total — —
Stock and clerical
Secretary's expenses
Editors’ expenses
Dues, A. C. L. S
Committee on Arrangements, Philadelphia. 1934
136.22
155.46
27.78
25.00
37.75
8
350
Proceedings
Honoraria:
W. N. Brown 200.00
E. A. Speiser 200.00
J. K. Shryock 200.00
J. C. Archer 100.00
Vol. 4, A. O. Series 751.05
Ibid., advertising 29.84
Vol. 5, A. 0. Series 309.08
Grand Total
Balance, Jan. 1, 1935
Grand Total
$ 4,909.28
16,636.18
— — $21,545.46
Monograph Account
Receipts Expenditures
Balance from A. C. Series
$1,243.47
Vol. 4
$ 780.89
Nies Income
4,145.83
3f)9 08
Sales
210.52
Balance, Jan. 1, ’35
5,009.85
Cash on account
500.00
$6,099.82
Total
$6,099.82
Journal
Account
Receipts
Expenditures
Appropriated for printing
$2,650.00
Printing
$2,316.50
Reprints
75.00
Paper, type, etc
190.59
Corrections
50.00
Reprints
78.60
Reviews
35.00
Additional ..
80.20
From authors, for reprints
20.20
Corrections
71.21
Corrections
21.25
Editors’ expenses
27.78
—
Balance, Jan. 1, ’35
86.57
Total
$2,851.45
$2,851.45
Balance Sheet
Assets
Liabilities
Mortgage
$6,000.00
Capital Funds, Abbott. . .
$6,187.50
Bond, Virginian Rv
1.000.00
Bradley
3,000.00
Stock, C.. R. I. & P. Ry.
75.00
Casanowicz ....
150.00
Cash
16,636.18
Cotheal
1,500.00
Whitney
1.000.00
Life Memb
4,175.00
Reserve
2,000.00
Balance, Monograph Acct.
5,009.85
Balance, Journal Acct. .
86.57
Balance, Current Funds.
602.26
Total
$23,711.18
$23,711.18
of the Society at Ann Arhor
351
Kepobt of the Auditing Committee
It is hereby certified that the accounts of the Treasurer have been exam-
ined, and have been found correct, and that the foregoing Report is in con-
formity with the accounts.
E. H. Sturtevant,
K. S. Latourette,
Auditing Committee.
Upon motion the reports of the Treasurer and the Auditing
Committee were accepted.
Keport of the Librarian
In the absence of the Librarian, Professor Andrew Keogh, the
Corresponding Secretary presented his report, as follows:
During the year 1934/35, 165 volumes and 398 numbers of periodicals
have been added to the Society’s Library. Of the periodical numbers 375
were in continuation of sets already in the Library; 19 represent titles
new to the Library. There have been three additions to the exchange list;
al-Andalus, Journal of the West China Research Society, and Publications
of the Indian Research Institute. With this year’s $100 appropriation for
the Library, some greatly needed binding has been done, chiefly of current
journals in frequent use; 68 of these volumes have been bound at a cost
of approximately seventy-five dollars. The remaining sum of twenty-five
dollars has been devoted to the buying of missing periodical numbers in
order that the Library may have, if possible, complete files of the more
important journals.
The cataloguing of books, pamphlets, and periodicals is up to date.
The following is a list of the accessions for the year: 1
Abegg, E. Der Messiasglaube in Indien und Iran auf Grund der Quellen
dargestellt. 1928.
Abu’l Hasan 'All ibn Nasir. Akhbar’ud-Dawlat ’is-Saljuqiyya. Ed. by
Muhammad Iqbal. 1933. (Panjab university oriental publications)
Adler, C. Lectures, selected papers, addresses, collected and pub. by his
colleagues and friends. 1933.
Ahmad Shawki. Majnun Layla. Tr. from the Arabic by A. J. Arberry.
1933.
Akademiia nauk, Leningrad. Sergeiu Fedorovichu Ol’denburgu, k piati-
desiatiletiiu nauchno-obshchestvennoi deiatel’nosti, 1882-1932. Sbornik
state!. 1934.
1 The Editors again call attention to the fact that reference in this list
constitutes acknowledgment of many of the books sent to the Journal
for review.
352
Proceedings
Amaracandra Suri. Padmananda mahakavya by Amaracandra Suri. Ed.
by H. R. Kapadla. 1932. (Gaekwad’s oriental series, no. 58)
Ame rican academy of political and social science, Philadelphia. American
policy in the Pacific, ed. by E. M. Patterson. 1933. ( Its Annals,
y. 168)
American society for the excavation of Sardis. Sardis; publications of
the American society for the excavation of Sardis, v. 7. 1932.
Amulyaehandra Sen. Schools and sects in Jaina Literature. [1931] (Visva-
bharati studies, no. 3)
al-Andalus. Revista de las eseuelas de estudios firabes de Madrid y
Granada, v. 1, fasc. 1-2, 1933. 1933.
Arden, A. H. Progressive grammar of common Tamil. 1910.
Progressive grammar of the Teluga language. (3d ed. ) 1921.
[ASvaghosa] Nairatmyapariprccha. Ed. by Sujitkumar Mukhopadhyaya.
[1931] ( Visva-bharati studies, no. 4)
Banaji, D. R. Slavery in British India. [1933]
Banerji, R. D. Eastern Indian school of mediaeval sculpture. 1933.
(India. Archaeol. survey. [Reports] New imperial series, v. 47)
Bardhe, F. i. Le dictionnaire albanais de 1635, ed. par M. Roques. I.
Dictionarius latino-epiroticum per R. D. F. Blanchum. 1932. (Biblio-
theque de l’ficole nationale des langues orientales vivantes)
Belvalkar, S. K. History of Indian philosophy, v. 7. [Indian mysticism:
Mysticism in Maharashtri] [1933]
Shree Gopal Basu Mallik lectures on Vedanta philosophy delivered
(December, 1925) pt. 1: lectures 1-6. 1929.
Bhasa. Thirteen Trivandrum plays attributed to Bhasa translated into
English by A. C. Woolner and Laksliman Sarup. v. 1. 1930. (Panjab
university oriental publications, no. 13)
Bisheshwar Nath Reu. History of the Rashtrakutas (Rathodas). 1933.
Bloch, J. La formation de la langue marathe. 1920. ( Bibliotheque de
1 £cole des hautes etudes. Sciences historiques et philologiques. 215.
fasc.)
Bonneau, G. L’expression poetique dans le folk-lore japonais. 1933. 3v.
(Annales du Mus4e Guimet. Bibliothtque d ’etudes. t. 42-44)
Brahmandapurana. Het Oud-Javaaneche Brahmanda-purana, vertaald door
dr. J. Gonda. 1933. (Bibliotheca Javanica, 6)
Breloer, B. Alexanders Kampf gegen Poros. Ein Beitrag zur indischen
Geschichte. 1933. (Bonner orientalistische Studien, Hft. 3)
Brown, W. N. The swastika, a study of the Nazi claims of its Aryan
origin. [1933]
Budge, E. A. W., tr. The Alexander book in Ethiopia. The Ethiopic ver-
sions of Pseudo-Callisthenes. the chronicle of Al-Makin, the narrative
of Joseph ben Gorion and a Christian romance of Alexander. Tr. into
English from mss. in the British museum and Bibliothfeque nationale.
1933.
Legends of Our Lady Mary the perpetual virgin and her mother
Hanna, tr. from Ethiopic mss. 1933 .
of the Society at Ann Arbor
353
Budge, E. A. W., tr. One hundred and ten miracles of Our Lady, tr. from
Ethiopic mss. 1933.
Cairo. Universite egyptienne. Faeulte des arts. Bulletin, v. 1, pt. 1-2.
1933.
Calcutta oriental journal, ed. by Kshitis Chandra Chatterji. v. 2, no. 1-3.
1934.
The Cambridge history of the British empire, v. 5. The Indian empire
1858-1918. With chapters on the development of administration 1818-
1858. Ed. by H. H. Dodwell. 1932.
Chicago. University. Oriental institute. Epigraphic and architectural
survey. Medinet Habu. v. 3. Plates 131-192. The calendar, The
“slaughterhouse” and minor records of Ramses III. 1934. (The
University of Chicago oriental institute publications, v. 23 )
Chiera, E., ed. Sumerian epics and myths. [1934] (The University of
Chicago oriental institute publications, v. XV. Cuneiform series,
v. Ill)
Sumerian texts of varied contents. [1934] (The University of Chi-
cago oriental institute publications, v. XVI. Cuneiform series, v. IV)
Christensen, A. Les types du premier homme et du premier roi dans
l’histoire legendaire des Iraniens. 2. ptie. 1934. (Archives d’etudes
orientales, v. 14: 2)
Coomaraswamy, A. K. The technique and theory of Indian painting. 1934.
ad-Daraqutnl. Kitab al-Askhiya’. Ed. by S. Wajahat Husain. [1934]
David, M. Vorm en wezen van de huwelijkssluiting naar de oud-oostersche
rechtsopvatting. 1934.
Davies, N. de G. The tomb of Nefer-Hotep at Thebes, v. 2. Plates. 1933.
(Metropolitan museum of art. Egyptian expedition. Publ., v. 9)
Dawson, W. R. Charles Wycliffe Goodwin 1817-1878. A pioneer in
egyptology. 1934.
Delhi. Central Asian antiquities museum. Catalogue of wall-paintings
from ancient shrines in Central Asia and Slstan. Recovered by Sir
Aurel Stein. Described by F. H. Andrews. 1933.
Dikshitar, V. R. Ramachandra. The Mauryan polity. 1932. (Madras
university historical series, no. VIII)
Some aspects of the Vayu purana. 1933. (Bulletins of the Dept, of
Indian history and archaeology, no. I )
Emmanuel, A. La Bible et l’lnde; clartes convergentes. Precede du
Message oriental par E. Zyromski. 1933.
Fahlgren, K. Hj. § e daka, nahestehende und entgegengesetzte Begriffe im
Alten Testament. 1932.
Fenicio, J. The Livro da seita dos Indios orientals (Brit. mus. ms. Sloane
1820). Ed. by J. Charpentier. [1933] (Arbeten utgivna med under-
stod av Vilhelm Ekmans universitets fond, 40)
Ferdovsi 934-1934. [Collection of papers on Firdawsi, on the occasion of
the 1000th anniversary of his birth] 1934.
Fiesel, E. Etruskisch. 1931. (Geschichte der indogermanischen Sprach-
wissenschaft, hrsg. von W. Streitberg. II. Die Erforschung der indo-
354
Proceedings
germanisehen Sprachen. Bd. 5, Lfg. 4) Grundriss der indoger-
manischen Sprach- und Altertumskunde, 5, 4.
Foucher, A. On the iconography of the Buddha’s nativity. 1934. (India.
Archaeol. survey. Memoirs, no. 46)
Frankfort, H. The Indus civilization and the Near East [1932?]
Friedrich, J. Hethitisch und “ kleinasiatische ” Sprachen. 1931. (Ge-
schichte der indogermanischen Sprach wissenschaft, hrsg. von W. Streit-
berg. II. Die Erforschung der indogermanischen Sprachen. Bd. 5,
Lfg. 1) Grundriss der indogermanischen Sprach und Altertumskunde,
5, 1.
Geiger, W. Litteratur und Spraehe der Singhalesen. 1900. (Grundriss
der indo-arischen Philologie und Altertumskunde. I. Bd., 10. Hft.)
Pali Literatur und Spraehe. 1916. (Grundriss der indo-arischen
Philologie und Altertumskunde, I. Bd., 10. Hft.)
Ginzberg, S. The life and works of Moses Hayyim Luzzatto. 1931.
Giuzal’ian, L. T. & ITiakonov, M. M. Rukopisi Shakh-Name v Lenin-
gradskikh sobraniiakh. 1934.
Gravely, F. H. and Ramaehandran, T. N. Three main, styles of temple
architecture recognized by the SilpaAastras. 1934. (Madras. Govt,
mus. Bull. New series. General section, v. 3, pt. 1)
Guhyasamaja Tantra; or, Tathagataguhyaka. Ed. by B. Bhattacharyya.
1931. (Gaekwad’s oriental series, no. 53)
Haaksma, R. Inleiding tot de studie der vervoegde vormen in de indone-
sische talen. 1933.
Haefeli, L. Stilmittel bei Afrahat dem persischen Weisen. 1932. (Leip-
ziger semitistische Studien. N. F., Bd. 4)
Hahn, F. Kurukh folk-lore in the original. 1905.
Kurukh (Orao) -English dictionary, pt. 1. 1903
Hannah, ^H. B. Grammar of the Tibetan language, literary and colloquial.
Har Bilas Sarda. Maharana Kumbha: sovereign, soldier, scholar. 2d
on 1 QQO ’
Han Sastri, B. Chitraprabha, a commentary on Haridikshita’s Laghu-
Sabdaratna. Ed. by Mahamahopadhyaya Tata Subbaraya Sastri. 1932.
(Andhra university series, no. 6)
Harsadeva Lihganu^usana with the commentary Sarvalaksana by
PrthivKvra. Critically ed. from original manuscripts and with an
introduction, indices and appendices by V. Venkatarama Sharma.
1931. (Madras university Sanskrit series no 4)
Hasan-i-Rumlii. A chronicle of the early Safawis, being the Ahsanu’t-
Tawankh of Hasan-i-Rumlu. Vol. I (Persian text) Ed. by C. N.
Seddon. 1931. (Gaekwad’s oriental series, no. 57)
Heimann, B. Studien zur Eigenart indischen Denkens. 1930
Hemehandra Raychaudhuri. Studies in Indian antiquities. 1932
Yn Jr d bT erSi0n POlkT ° f the JeSuits India - 1933.' (Studies
“ « ° the lDdian historical «-«rch institute, St.
Aavier s college, Bombay, no. 8)
of the Society at Ann Arbor
355
Heras, H. The Pallava genealogy. 1931. (Studies in Indian history of the
Indian historical research institute. St. Xavier’s college, Bombay,
no. 7)
Hiriyanna, M. Outlines of Indian philosophy. 1932.
Hocart, A. M. The Temple of the Tooth in Kandy. 1931. (Memoirs of
the Archaeological survey of Ceylon, v. IV)
Hofner, M. Die katabanischen und sabaischen Inschriften der siidarabischen
Expedition im Kunsthistorisehen Museum in Wien (II) [1933]
Ihn Iyas, Muhammad ibn Ahmad. Die Chronik des Ibn Ijas. In gemein-
schaft mit Moritz Sobernheim hrsg. von P. Kahle und Muhammed
Mustafa. 5. T. A. H. 922-928/a. d. 1516-1522. 1932. (Bibliotheca
Islamica, Bd. 5e)
Ingushskil nauchno-issledo-vatel’skil institut, Vladikavkaz. Izvestiia. l-4 a .
1928-32.
Al-Isfahanf. Kitab al-zahrah (The Book of the flower) The first half.
Composed by Abu Bakr Muhammad Ibn Abl Sulaiman Dawud al-
Isfahanl. Ed. by A. R. Nykl, in collaboration with Ibrahim Tuqan. [1932]
(Chicago. University. Oriental institute. Studies in ancient oriental
civilization, no. 6)
Ishaque, M. Sukhanvaran-i-Iran dar 'Asr-i-Hazir. Poets and poetry of
modern Persia, v. 1. 1933.
Ivanov, V., ed. Two early Ismaili treatises : Haft-babi Baba Sayyid-na and
MatlubuT-mu’minin. Persian text by W. Ivanow. 1933. (Islamic
research association, 2)
Jackson, A. V. W. Researches in Manichaeism with special reference to
the Turfan fragments. 1932. (Columbia university. Indo-Iranian
series, v. 13)
Jacob, G. Das chinesische Schattentheater. Bearb. von G. Jacob und H.
Jensen. 1933. (Das Orientalische Schattentheater. Bd. 3)
Das indische Schattentheater, bearb. von G. Jacob, H. Jensen,
H. Losch. 1931. (Das Orientalische Schattentheater, Bd. 2)
Jayakhyasamhita. Ed. by Embar Krishnamacharya. 1931. (Gaekwad’s
oriental series, no. 54)
Johnson, S. [Copies of eight letters by Samuel Johnson, T. B. Chandler
and Stephen Sewall, from Johnson’s Letter books in Columbia uni-
versity library]
Jdrgensen, H. J., ed. Vicitrakarnikavadanoddhrta, a collection of Buddhistic
legends. Nevarl text. Edited and translated into English. 1931.
(Oriental translation fund. New series, v. 31)
Jung, M. The Jewish law of theft with comparative references to Roman
and English law. 1929.
Katyayana. Katyayanasmrti on vyavahara (law and procedure) Text
(reconstructed), translation, notes and introduction by P. V. Kane.
1933.
Kaye, G. R. Bakhshall manuscript, pt. 3. 1933. (India. Archaeological
survey. [Reports] New imperial series, v. 43, pt, 3)
356
Proceedings
Kebra nagast. The Queen of Sheba and her only son Menyelek (I). Tr.
from the Ethiopic by Sir E. A. Wallis Budge. 1932.
Ke&ava. Kalpadruko£a. Comp, by Shrikanta Sharma. v. II. Index. 1932.
Gaekwad’s oriental series, no. 60)
Khaki Khorasanl. An abbreviated version of the Diwan of Khaki Khorasani.
Persian text ed. with an introduction by W. Ivanow. 1933. (Islamic
research association, no. 1)
Kimchi, D. David Kimhi’s Hebrew grammar (Mikhlol) systematically
presented and critically annotated by W. Chomsky, pt. 1. 1933.
Kittel, F. Grammar of the Kannada language in English. 1903.
Kokon shiu. Chefs-d’oeuvre du KokinshO, par G. Bonneau. 1934. (Annales
du Musee Guimet. Biblioth&que d’etudes. t. 46 )
“ Defence et illustration ” de la poesie japonaise. Ki no Tsurayuki
preface au KokinshO. Edition critique par G. Bonneau. 1933.
(Annales du Musee Guimet. Bibliotheque d’etudes. t. 45)
Texte integral du KokinshO avec les commentaires originaux,
d’aprbs Kaneko Genshm, edition de Showa, par G. Bonneau. 1934.
(Annales du Musee Guimet. Biblithfeque d’etudes, t. 47)
Koppelmann, H. Die eurasische Sprach-familie : indogermanisch, koreanisch
und Verwandtes. 1933.
Krishna Menon, S. T. K. Dravidian culture and its diffusion. [1933]
(Madras university extension lecture, 1933)
Krishna-S\ami Aiyangar, sakkottai. Evolution of Hindu administrative
institutions in South India. [1931] (Sir William Meyer lectures,
1929-30; Madras university)
Kuppustvami Sastri, S. A primer of Indian logic according to Annam-
bhatta’s Tarkasamgraha. 1932.
Lagercrantz, 0. Indogermanisches Pradikativ. 1933.
Law, B. C. Geography of early Buddhism. With a foreword by F. W.
Thomas. 1932.
Leumann, E. ubersicht fiber die Avasyaka-Literatur. Aus dem Nachlass
hrsg. von W. Schubring. 1934. (Alt- und neu-indische Studien, 4)
Levi, S., ed. Fragments de testes koutcheens, Udanavarga, Udanastotra,
Udanalamkara et Karmavibhanga pub. et tr. avec un vocabulaire et
une introduction sur le “ tokharien.” 1933. (Cahiers de la Societe
asiatique, 1. ser., II)
Haha-Karmavibhanga (la grande classification des actes) etKarmavi-
bhangopadeSa (discussion sur le Maha Karmavibhanga). 1932.
evy . An introduction to the sociology of Islam, v. 2. [1933] (Herbert
Spencer s Descriptive sociology, demv 8vo series v II)
Lichtenstaedter, S. The future of Palestine. 1934.
Lindquist, S. Die Methoden des Yoga. 1932
Madan, A. C. Swahili (Zanzibar) grammar. 1905.
Mahakosala historical society. Papers, v 1 1932
MaheWara. Commentary of' Skandasvfim'in and MaheSvara on the Nirukta,
1931 CriUcally ed ' for the first time by Lakshman Sarup.
of the Society at Ann Arbor 357
Majumdar, N. G. Explorations in Sind. 1934. (India. Archaeol. survey.
Memoirs, no. 48)
Mandanami^ra. The Sphotasiddhi of Acarya MandanamiSra with the
Gopalika of Rsiputra Paramesvara ed. by S. K. Ramanatha Sastrl.
1931. (Madras university Sanskrit series, no. 6)
Mansion, J. Esquisse d’une histoire de la langue sanscrite. 1931.
Man-yo shu. Die Langgedichte Yakamoehi’s aus dem Manyoshu in Text
und tibersetzung mit Erlauterungen. I. Einleitung und Naga-uta Buch
III, VIII, XVII, XVIII von E. E. Florenz. 1933. ( Veroffentlichungen
des Seminars fur Spraehe und Kultur Japans an der hamburgischen
Universitat. Nr. 4)
Meillet, A. Grammaire du vieux-perse. 2. ed., entibrement eor. et augm.
par E. Benveniste. 1931. (Collection linguistique, 34)
Meissner, B. Beitrage zum assyrisehen Worterbuch. II. [1932] (Chicago.
University. Oriental institute. Assyriological studies, no. 4)
Muhammad Ikbal, Sir. The reconstruction of religious thought in Islam.
1934.
Mukerji, D. G. Daily meditation; or, The practice of repose. 1933.
Mukerji, J. N. Samkhya; or. The theory of reality. A critical and con-
structive study of Isvarakr-sna’s Sfimkhya-karika. [1931?]
Nagarjuna. MahayanavimSaka. Ed. by Vidhushekhara Bhattacharya.
[1931] ( Visva-bliarati studies, no. 1)
Narendra Krishna Sinha. Ranjit Singh. 1933.
Newell, E. T. Ancient oriental seals in the collection of Mr. Edward T.
Newell, by H. H. von der Osten. [1934] (The University of Chicago
oriental institute publications, v. XXII)
Nicolas, A. L. M. Qui est le successeur du Bab? 1933.
Nilakanta Sastri, K. A. A. Studies in Cola history and administration.
1932. (Madras university historical series, no. 7)
Nltigastra. Oud-Javaansche tekst met vertaling uitg. door R. N. G. dr.
Poerbatjaraka. 1933. (Bibliotheca Javanica, 4)
Omar Khayyam. Die vierzeiler 'Omar Chajjams in der Auswahl und
Anordnung Edward FitzGeralds aus dem Persischen verdeutscht von
C. H. Rempis. 1933.
Oriental studies in honour of Cursetji Erachji Pavry, ed. by Jal Dastur
Cursetji Pavry. 1933.
Ortiz de Urbina, I. Die Gottheit Christi bei Afrahat. [1933] (Orientalia
Christiana, v. 31-1, no. 87)
Palestine. Dept, of antiquities. The quarterly of the Dept, of antiquities
in Palestine, v. 3, Index, v. 4, no. 1-4. 1934-35.
Pancatantra. Panciatantra. Cele cinci carti ale infelepciunii. (Traducere
din limba Sanscrit:!) de Th. Simensehy. v. 1. [1932?]
Parananda Sutra, ed. by Trivikrama Txrtha, with a foreword by B.
Bhattacharyya. 1931. (Gaekwad’s oriental series, no. 56)
Peiping. National library. Quarterly bulletin of Chinese bibliography
^Combined edition} v. 1, no. 2-3. 1934.
358
Proceedings
Pennsylvania. University. University museum. Luristan bronzes in the
University museum [by] Leon Legrain. [1934] (Its The Museum
journal. Catalogue supplement, no. 1)
Pennsylvania. University. University museum. University museum bulletin.
1934-35.
Piper, H. Der gesetzmiissige Lebenslauf der Volker Altagyptens. 1933.
( Bis Die Gesetze der Weltgeschichte. Volkerbiologie, 2. Abt., 3. T.,
1. Bd.)
Pires, E. A. The Maukharis. With a preface by H. Heras. 1934. (Studies
in Indian history of the Indian historical research institute, St.
Xavier’s college, Bombay, no. 10)
Pischel, R. Grammatik der Prakrit-Sprachen. 1900. (Grundriss der indo-
arischen Philologie und Altertumskunde. Bd. I, Hft. 8)
Prabhakara MiSra. Brhatl of Prabhakara Misra <Un the Mimamsasutra-
bhasya of j§abarasvamin> with the Rjuvimalapancika of Salikanatha
<Tarkapada> Ed. by S. K. Ramanatha Sastri. 1934. (Madras uni-
versity Sanskrit series, no. 3, pt. 1)
Praj naparamitas. The commentaries on the Prajnaparamitas. Vol. 1. The
Abhisamayalankaraloka of Haribhadra. Ed. by G. Tucci. 1932.
(Gaekwad’s oriental series, no. 62)
Printz, W. Zugangsverzeichnis der Bibliothek der Deutschen morgen-
landischen Gesellschaft, Dez. 1931 his Mai 1934. Beilage zur Zeit-
schrift der Deutschen morgenlandischen Gesellschaft Bd 88 (If. F. 13)
1934.
Puranas. Kurina purana. L’lSvaragita, le chant de Siva. Texte extrait
du Kurma purana. Tr. du Sanskrit par P.-E. Dumont. 1933.
Quigley, H. S. Chinese politics today [1934] (The Day and hour series
of the University of Minnesota, no. 8)
Rajavade, V. K. Words in Rgveda (being an attempt to fix the sense of
every word that occurs in Rgveda) v. 1. 1932.
Ramachandran, T. N. Tiruparuttikunram and its temples. 1934. (Madras
Govt. mus. Bull. Xew series. General section, v. 1, pt. 3)
Ramaswami Aiyar, L. F. Dravidic problems. 1933.
Ramaswami Aiyar, L. V. Tulu initial affricates and sibilants, [n. d.]
Ray, H. C. The dynastic history of Northern India (early mediaeval
period) With a foreword by L. D. Barnett, v. 1 . 1931.
Roerich, G. X. Dialects of Tibet. The Tibetan dialect of Lahul. [19—?]
(Tibetica I)
Rustom Pestonji Bhajiwalla. MaulanS Shibli & Umar Khayyam. 1932.
Saha, R. N. The origin of the alphabet and numerals. Ulus, by G. C.
Saha. 1931.
Sahaji, King of Tanjore. Sabdaratnasamanvaya koSa of King Sahaji of
anjore. Ed. by \ itthalram Lalluram Shastri. 1932. (Gaekwad’s
oriental series, no. 59)
Saktisangama Tantra, ed. by B. Bhattacharyya. Vol. 1 , Kalikhanda. 1932.
(uaekwad a oriental series, no. 61)
of the Society at Ann Arbor
359
Sangameswara Sastri, G. Sangameswarakrodum on Jagadisa’s Siddhanta-
lakshanam. 1933. (Andhra university series, 7)
Sankaran, C. R. Accentuation in Sanskrit determinative compounds.
[19—?]
Saunders, K. J. Whither Asia? a study of three leaders. 1933.
Schwab, R. Vie d’Anquetil-Duperron suivie des Usages civils et religieux
des Parses par Anquetil-Duperron. Avee une preface de S. Levi, et
deux essais du Dr. Sir Jivanji Jamshedji Modi. 1934.
Sewell, R. Historical inscriptions of Southern India (collected till 1923).
Pub. by the Univ. of Madras. Ed. by S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar.
1932. (Madras university historical series, no. 5)
Shchupak, N. Dictionnaire Sanskrit -frangais par N. Stchoupak, L. Nitti
et L. Renou. 1931-32. 3v. (Publ. de 1’Institut de civilisation indienne)
Shihabu’d-dln Shah al-Husaynl. True meaning of religion (Risala dar
Haqiqati Din), Persian text and an English translation by W. Ivanow.
1933. (Islamic research association, no. 3)
Skachkov, P. E. Vnutrenniaia Mongoliia ( ekonomiko-geograficheskil
oeherk) 1933. (Xauchno-issledovatel’skaia assotsiatsiia po izucheniui
natsional’nykh i kolonial’nykh problem, Moscow. Trudy, vypusk 10)
Smirnov, J. I. Der Schatz von Achalgori. Aus dem Nachlass von G.
Tschubinaschwili hrsg. 1934.
Sogdilskil sbornik. [A collection of papers on Soghdian antiquities recently
discovered in Tajikistan] 1934.
Stein, M. A. Archaeological reconnaissances in Southern Persia. [1934]
Suali, L. L’illumine ; la legende du Bouddha. Tr. de l’italien par P.-E.
Dumont. [1925?]
Suttanipata. Buddha’s teachings, being the Sutta-Nipata or Discourse-
collection. Ed. in the original Pali text with an English version facing
it, by Lord Chalmers. 1932. (Harvard oriental series, v. 37)
Suzuki, D. T. Essays in Zen Buddhism (third series) 1934.
The training of the Zen Buddhist monk. 1934.
Taittirlya-pratisakhya with the Bhasya Padakramasadana by Mahiseya.
Critically ed. by V. Venkatarama Sharma Vidyabhushana. 1930.
(Madras University Sanskrit series, no. 1)
Tarapore, J. C., ed. Pahlavi Andarz-Xamak containing Chltak Andarz I
Poryotkafehan ; or, The selected admonitions of the POryotkaeshan
and five other Andarz texts. Transliteration and translation into
English and Gujarati of the original Pahlavi texts with an introduction
by J. C. Tarapore. 1933.
Thackeray, H. St. J. Josephus, the man and the historian. 1929. (Hilda
Stich Stroock lectures at the Jewish institute of religion)
Thadani, X. V. The garden of the East. 1932.
Toledo museum of art. Toledo, Ohio. Catalogue. Special exhibition of
Persian art. [1935]
[Trina-dhumagni] Tolkappiam (Porulatikaram) The oldest rhetorical work
in the world done into English by R. Vasudeva Sanna. fasc. 1. 1933.
360
Proceedings
Udbhata. Kavyalankarasarasaiigraha of Udbhata, with the ‘ Vivrti.’ Critic-
ally ed. with introduction and indexes by K. S. Ramaswami Sastri
Siromani. 1931. (Gaekwad’s oriental series, no. 55)
Unadisutras. The Unadisutras in various recensions. Ed. by T. R.
Chintamani. 1933. 2v. (Madras university Sanskrit series, no. 7)
Upanishads. The secret lore of India and the one perfect life for all;
being a few main passages from the Upanishads put into English verse
with an introduction & a conclusion by W. M. Teape. 1932.
Vardhamana. Dandaviveka of Vardhamana. Critically ed. with an intro-
duction and index by Kamala Krsna Smrtitlrtha. 1931. (Gaekwad’s
oriental series, no. 52)
Vedas. Rigveda. Rgveda-samhita. Pt. 1. Tr. with critical notes by Dr.
Sitanath Pradhan. 1933. (Indian research institute publications.
Vedic series)
Venkatasubbiah, A. Vedic studies, v. 1. 1932.
Waldsehmidt, E. Manichaisehe Dogmatik aus chinesisehen und iranischen
Texten von E. Waldsehmidt und W. Lentz. 1933.
West China border research society. Journal, v. 1, 3-5. 1922-32.
Whitney, W. D. Sanskrit grammar. 1891.
Ysander, T. Studien zum B'estschen Hasidismus in seiner religions-
geschichtlichen Sonderart. 1933.
Zeitschrift fur vergleichende Musikwissenschaft. Jahrg. 1, no. 2; 2, no. 1.
1933-34.
On motion the report of the Librarian was accepted.
Report of the Editors of the Journal
Since the last meeting of the Society the Editors have published Volume
54, parts 2, 3, and 4, and Volume 55, part 1. The total number of pages
was 476 as compared with 416, the number of pages printed during the pre-
ceding year. There is still a large amount of material available, and incom-
ing contributions of merit are on the increase. Because of a considerable
reduction in the cost of printing of the Journal, the Editors hope further
to enlarge the Journal in the course of the present year, either through
an increase in the size of the individual issues or through the publication
of occasional departmental supplements.
Two volumes have been added to the American Oriental Series. Volume
5 presents the work of Professor William F. Albright on The Vocalization
of the Egyptian Syllabic Orthography. Volume 6, by Professor Robert H.
Pfeiffer, deals with The State Letters of Assyria. Volume 7 will contain A
Cnion List of Printed Indie Texts and Translations in American Libraries,
by Dr. Murray B. Emeneau. The cost of the latter publication is borne
by the American Council of Learned Societies, and the Editors take this
opportunity to express to the Council their appreciation of this generous
contribution to the cause of Indie studies. Lastly, the Editors have
accepted for publication a study by Dr. Zellig S. Harris on the subject of
of the Society at Ann Arbor
361
A Grammar of Phoenician. Attention is called to the fact that Members
of the Society and Subscribing Libraries have the advantage of considerable
reductions in price if these publications are ordered promptly and directly
from the Editors.
W. Norman Brown,
John Knight Shbyock,
E. A. Speiser,
Editors.
On motion the report of the Editors was accepted.
On the motion of Professor Speiser it was voted to extend the
hearty thanks of the Society to the American Council of Learned
Societies for the generosity of the Council in aiding the Society
in the publication of Dr. Emeneau’s volume on A Union List of
Printed Indie Texts and Translations in American Libraries.
Repoet op the Executive Committee
The Corresponding Secretary presented the report of the Exe-
cutive Committee. The report referred to the election of members
whose names are given below, and to other actions of the Com-
mittee, published in the Journal 55. 113.
Upon motion the actions of the Committee were ratified.
Election op Members
The following forty-one persons recommended by the Directors
were duly elected corporate members of the Society (the list in-
cluding three who were elected at a later session) : *
Miss Adelaide A. Adams
Mrs. R. Aga-Oglu
Mr. Francis O. Allen
Prof. S. Basare
Dr. George Beebtel
Miss Joyce Black
Dr. Meribeth Cameron
Mr. Douglas D. Crary
Mr. George B. Cressey
Miss Dorothy Cross
Dr. S. D. Davidson
Prof. D. H. Davis
Mr. R. M. Engberg
Dr. Nabih A. Faris
Rabbi J. D. Folkman
Prof. Albrecht Gotze
Miss Helen Hall
Miss Isabel Hubbard
Prof. Isaac Husik
Mr. Harald William Jacobson
Hon. Nelson T. Johnson
Rev. W. P. Lemon
Prof. Julius Lewy
Rev. Herbert G. May
* The other persons whose names were published in the Journal 55. 236
had been elected previously by the Executive Committee.
362
Proceedings
Prof. L. A. Mayer
Mr. William S. McCullough
Dr. Isaac Mendelsohn
Mr. Pierre M. Purves
Mrs. Diana J. Riesman
Prof. Corwin C. Roach
Prof. H. N. Rowley
Mr. Joseph A. Russell
Miss Jeanette Shambaugh
Mr. Carol E. Simeox
Rev. Victor H. Sword
Mr. Gordon R. Taylor
Prof. Glenn T. Trewatha
Prof. S. S. Van Valkenberg
Mrs. Richard H. Webber
Prof. Frederick V. Winnett
Election of Officebs
Professor FT. Schmidt presented the report of the Committee on
the Nomination of Officers for 1935-36 as follows:
President: Professor William Foxwell At/bright, of The Johns Hopkins
University.
Vice-Presidents: Professor Edgar H. Sturtevant, of Yale University;
Dr. Charles J. Ogden, of New York; and Professor Leroy Waterman,
of the University of Michigan.
Corresponding Secretary: Professor LeRoy C. Barret, of Trinity College,
Hartford.
Recording Secretary: Dr. Ludlow Bull, of the Metropolitan Museum,
New York.
Treasurer: Professor John C. Archer, of Yale University.
Librarian: Profesor Andrew Keogh, of Yale University.
Editors of the Journal: Professor W. Norman Brown, of the University
of Pennsylvania; Dr. John K. Shryock, of Philadelphia; and Professor
Ephraim A, Speiser, of the University of Pennsylvania.
Directors for the term ending 1938: Professor Theophile J. Meek, of
the University of Toronto; Professor W. H. Worrell, of the University
of Michigan; and Dr. James R. Ware, of the Harvard- Yenching
Institute, Cambridge.
Nathaniel Schmidt, Chairman,
Paul Emile Dumont,
Julian Morgenstern.
The officers thus nominated were duly elected
Election of Hoxoraky Member
On recommendation of the Directors, Dr. Antoine Meillet, Pro-
fessor of Indo-European Comparative Philology at the College
de France and the Ecole des Hautes Etudes, was unanimously
elected an honorary member of the Society.
The president announced that the International Congress of
Orientalists was to meet in Rome, Italy, in September 1935, and
of the Society at Ann Arbor
363
asked that those members of the Society who expected to attend
the Congress should notify the Corresponding Secretary.
At this point the President of the Middle West Branch of the
Society, Professor Prancis W. Buckler, announced that the annual
business meeting of the Branch would be held on Friday morning
at 9.15, and he announced the appointment of committees of the
Branch.
The President of the Society appointed as a Committee on
Resolutions, Professor Sturtevant and Messrs. Orlinsky and
Winnett.
At this point the Corresponding Secretary was requested, by
unanimous vote of those present to send telegrams of greeting
from the Society to Professor Charles R. Lanman and Professor
A. Y. Williams Jackson.
The reading of papers was then begun.
Professor Julius Lewy, of the Jewish Theological Seminary: A new
Version of Sennacherib’s Campaigns.
Dr. John K. Shryock, of Philadelphia: A Chinese Machiavelli. Remarks
by Prof. McGovern.
Professors L. Waterman and L. C. Karpinski, of the University of
Michigan : The recently discovered revolutionary mathematical Attainments
of the Babylonians. Remarks by Dr. Shryock and Professor Speiser.
After the session the members of the Society were the guests
of the University of Michigan at luncheon at the Michigan Union,
where President Ruthven of the University made a cordial address
of welcome.
THE SECOND SESSION
The second session was called to order at 2.30 p. M. President
Kent resigned the chair to Professor Francis W. Buckler, President
of the Middle West Branch of the Society, and delivered his
Presidential Address on “ Linguistic Science and the Orientalist ”
(published Journal do. 115). President Kent then resumed the
chair.
The following papers were then read:
Professor E. A. Speiser, of the University of Pennsylvania: The
Problem of Gender in the Semitic Languages. Remarks by Professor Kent.
Professor W. N. McGovern, of Northwestern University: The Indo-
Scythians.
364
Proceedings
Professor N. C. Debevoise, of the Oriental Institute, University of
Chicago: Cicero, Cilicia, and the Parthians.
Professor A. T. Olmstead, of the Oriental Institute, University of
Chicago: Oriental Science and Greek Philosophy. Remarks by President
Morgenstern, ProfGssor Bonner and Dr. Coomaraswamy.
Professor G. W. Briggs, of Drew University: Some Means of fixing
Attention according to the Siva Samhita. Remarks by Dr. Coomaraswamy
and Professor F. Edgerton.
Mr. Z. S. Harris, of the University of Pennsylvania: Some phonetic
Deductions from Ras Shamra.
On Wednesday evening the members of the Society were enter-
tained delightfully by President and Mrs. Ruthven of the Uni-
versity of Michigan at a reception at their house.
THE THIRD SESSION
The third session was called to order at 9.15 A. M. to hear the
Presidential Address of the President of the Middle West Branch
of the Society, Professor Francis W. Buckler of the Oherlin
Graduate School of Theology, on “ The Shahnamah and its Place
in the Genealogia Regni Dei.”
The meeting then divided into three sections.
The Section for Semitics and Related Studies
Professor Price presided at the section for Semitic and Related
Studies. The following papers were read :
Professor W. F. Edgerton, of the University of Chicago : On the Origin
of certain Coptic verbal Forms. Remarks by Dr. Bull and Professors
Speiser and Worrell.
Professor W. A. Irwin, of the University of Chicago: Isaiah’s Attitude
in the Crisis of 701 B. c. Remarks by Professor Buttenwieser.
Professor Nelson Glueck, of the Hebrew Union College: Israel in the
Arabah. Remarks by Professors Meek and Speiser.
President Julian Morgenstern, of the Hebrew Union College: What
happened to Jerusalem about 4S5 b. c. Remarks by Professor Irw'in.
Rabbi Sheldon H. Blank, of the Hebrew Union College: A Reexamina-
tion of some biblical Sources for the Relations between Israel and Edom.
Mr. F. V. Winnett, of the University of Toronto: A new Thamudic
Inscription (illustrated). Remarks by Professor Butin.
of the Society at Ann Arbor
365
The Section- for Indo-Iranian and Related Studies
Dr. Coomaraswamy presided at the section for Indo-Iranian and
Related Studies. The following papers were read :
Professor Truman H. Michelson, of George Washington University:
Anaptyxis in Middle Indo-Aryan. Remarks by Professor F. Edgerton.
Professor Franklin Edgerton, of Yale University: Meter in Buddhistic
Sanskrit. Remarks by Professor Kent.
Dr. M. B. Emfxf.au, of Yale University: The Causative in Dravidian.
Remarks by Professors Kent and Michelson, Miss Hahn, and Dr. Coomaras-
wamy.
Professor E. H. Sturtevant, of Yale University: Vowel Assimilation
or Ablaut in certain Hittite Words. Remarks by Professors Kent,
Edgerton and Michelson.
Dr. A. K. Coomaeaswamy, of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston: The
Darker Side of Dawn.
Dr. G. V. Bobbinskoy, of the University of Chicago: A line of Brahma-
script in a Babylonian Contract Tablet. Remarks by Professor Michelson,
Dr. Bowman and Mr. Winnett.
The Section for Far Eastern Studies
Mr. Graves presided at the section for Far Eastern Studies. The
following papers were read:
Professor T. W. Nakarai, of Butler University: The Japanese Syllabaries.
Remarks by Professors McGovern and Elisseef.
Professor Charles S. Braden, of Northwestern University: Konkokvo,
a little known Japanese Sect. Remarks by Professors Elisseef and McGovern.
Miss Ardella R. Hall, of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston: Chinese
Art and Genius (illustrated). Remarks by Dr. Hummel.
Professor Serge Elisseef, of the Harvard-Yenching Institute: An
Abortive Proposal for Japanese Assistance to the last of the Ming Emperors.
Remarks by Dr. Hummel, and Professors Hamilton and McGovern.
After the session the members of the Society were generously
entertained at luncheon at the Michigan Union by their fellow
member Mr. Henry K. Sehoch, of Detroit and of the University
of Michigan.
THE FOURTH SESSION
The fourth session was called to order at 2.30 p. m. and the
following papers were read:
Professor Moses Bcttenwieseb, of the Hebrew Union College: Psalms
137, 42-43, and 107A and the Spiritual Condition of Israel during the Exile.
9
366
Proceedings
Mr. H. M. Orlinsky, of Dropsie College: The columnar Order of the
Hexapla. Remarks by Mr. Johnson.
Dr. W. E. Staples, of Victoria University: A persistent Mistranslation.
Remarks by Professors Speiser and Meek, and President Morgenstern.
Professor N. Schmidt, of Cornell University: The Aramaic Origin of
Gospels. Remarks by Professor Sanders.
Mr. W. H. Dubberstein, of the Oriental Institute, University of Chicago :
Materials for the History of Seleueid Babylonia.
Professor T. J. Meek, of the University of Toronto: The Transliteration
of Cuneiform. Remarks by Professors Olmstead, Sturtevant, Kent, Water-
man, and Lewy, and Dr. Geers.
On Thursday evening the Annual Dinner of the Society took
place at the Michigan Union.
THE FIFTH SESSION
The fifth session was called to order at 9.15 Friday morning.
Professor Watermann reported for the Committee on Arrange-
ments.
The Next Annual Meeting
The Corresponding Secretary announced that the next annual
meeting of the Society would be held, at the invitation of Yale
University, at New Haven in the neighborhood of Easter 1936, the
exact days to be fixed by the Executive Committee.
The Committee foe the Promotion of Oriental Kesearch
In the absence of Professor Bender, chairman of the committee,
the Corresponding Secretary Tead the following report of the
Committee on the Promotion of Oriental Besearch :
The Standing Committee for the Promotion of Oriental Research, con-
sisting of Professors Bender (chairman) and Montgomery, and Dr. Hummel,
reported to the Directors of the Society at their meeting Tuesday evening,
the 23rd of April 1935, on the first year of its work. The committee
outlined its policy and reported in some detail on its activities in connec-
tion with various projects of research.
The committee voted to suggest to the Society, through its Directors,
that it look forward constructively to a time and situation when the
Society will make available or secure funds sufficient to permit the setting
aside of a substantial sum each year for the support of research projects,
on the ground that the Society should be able to offer some amount, how-
ever small, when it seeks support outside. In this connection, the
committee offered its services in an advisory capacity.
of the Society at Ann Arbor
367
The committee decided also to announce in the Journal that members
of the Society who have well planned projects or complete manuscripts
are invited to submit them to the Soeiety. Beyond this the committee does
not plan, except by informal contacts, to make any effort to secure applica-
tions, the desire being to keep a high standard of applications. The
committee will critically examine such matured projects, and, if it approves
them, will assist in trying to secure funds for publication, providing there
seems to be a reasonable prospect of securing such funds. The committee
will not serve as a mere rubber stamp of approval.
During the past year seven projects were approved by the committee,
and every effort was made to further them. Of this number three were
carried, in cooperation with other agencies, to the point of appropriations
involving many thousands of dollars. Three were definitely advanced
with increased hope for the future, and one was rejected by the body to
which application was made. But even for that single case another solu-
tion is likely to be found.
As regards many of these projects public announcement would be pre-
mature now, for one reason or another; but from time to time, as the
situation may justify it, the committee will issue statements in the
Journal under the heading, “ Notes of the Society.”
Beokganization op the Society
President Morgenstern reported for the Committee on the
Eeorganization of the Society. He announced that the committee,
after long and careful consideration had proposed amendments
to the Constitution and By-laws, which would be submitted to the
members of the Society for their consideration (published Joubnal
55. 226), and passed upon at the next Annual Meeting.
Committee on a Laufeb Memobial
The Corresponding Secretary reported that in pursuance of a
vote of the Board of Directors the President had appointed a
committee to consider plans for a permanent memorial of the late
Dr. Berthold Laufer, consisting of Professor Clark, chairman,
Professor Olmstead, and Dr. Shryock.
Professor Olmstead reported for the American schools of
Oriental Eesearch, and President Morgenstern spoke briefly on the
Endowment Fund of the Schools.
Eepoet of Delegates to the Council of Leabned Societies
Professor FT. Schmidt read the following report for Dr. Shryock
368
Proceedings
and himself as Delegates to the American Council of Learned
Societies.
The Council met in Boston, Massachusetts, in the House of the American
Academy of Arts and Sciences, on February 1st and 2nd, 1935. The organi-
zation of the Council had taken place in the same building fifteen year3
before, on September 19th, 1919.
The meetings were stimulating and fruitful. The Budget adopted for
1935 amounted to $109,750.00, the funds being obtained chiefly from the
Carnegie and Rockefeller Foundations. A number of important actions
were taken which are of interest to this society.
The Council has adopted the following system of rendering assistance to
publications : It will extend assistance to a limited number of works in
the humanities by American scholars, normally in the form of a sub-
vention to the sponsoring society. It invites its constituent societies to
propose suitable works for assistance. The selection of works to be recom-
mended is made by a jury consisting of the Advisory Board, and of not
more than seven other members named by the Executive Committee.
Works to be recommended should be complete works, preferably the results
of constructive research. Assistance was voted to eight works, and the
jury did not have sufficient information on seventeen titles to warrant
making a decision. The editors of the Journal did not make any request
for funds this year.
The Committee on Far Eastern Studies reported the death of Dr.
Berthold Laufer, expressed appreciation of his work, and recommended
that a permanent memorial, in the form of a chair of sinology, a fellow-
sliip, or a memorial re-publication of his collected works, should be pro-
vided. The Training Center for Far Eastern Studies in the Library of
Congress has increased its personnel. The work of translating the Han
Dynastic History is proceeding satisfactorily under the direction of Dr.
H. H. Dubs. A successful Summer Seminar was held in 1934 at the
University of California, and Columbia University is planning to hold one
m 1935. A number of grants have been made to individual scholars in
this field, and the first volume of Studies in Chinese and Related Civiliza-
tions has been published, containing The Literary Inquisition of Ch'ien-
Lung, by Dr. L. C. Goodrich.
The Committee on Indie and Iranian Studies reported that an American
School of Indie and Iranian Studies had been incorporated, and that an
archeological expedition to the Indus Valiev was projected. The chairman
of the commitee. Professor Brown, has been in India endeavoring to make
arrangements for this enterprise. The committee also reported on the work
one during the year on the Census of Indie Manuscripts in the United
States and Canada, and on the listing of Indie texts and translations.
In the summer of 1935, there will be held at Princeton University a
Seminar in Arabic and Islamic Studies. Professor Hitti will be in charge
of the -eminar, which is a new venture in this field. It is to be hoped that
it will be very successful.
of the Society at Ann Arbor
369
The Permanent Secretary, Mr. Leland, spoke on the death of Mgr.
Lacombe, and there were a number of appreciations of his work.
Among those projects which were assisted, and which are of especial
interest to the society, were the Preparation of Skeletal Remains at Haifa,
by T. P. McCown, of the American School of Prehistoric Research; the
Study of the Non- Aryan Languages of India; the Research in American
Indian Law; and the Index to Tertullian. While not in the Oriental
field, members of the society will be interested in the Descriptive Gram-
mar of English, now being undertaken under the direction of Professor
Sapir. An interesting outline of the work already accomplished was
presented at the meeting.
Attention may once more be called to the Council’s funds which are
applied to research fellowships. At present these are sought chiefly for
research in English and Romance philology and literature, but they should
be more generally utilized by orientalists. The Rotograph Service of the
Modern Language Association has now been extended into the other fields
of the humanities. The project for Excavation at Tarsus in Cilicia, pro-
posed by the Archeological Institute of America, was referred back to
the Executive Committee. The American Society of International Law
was admitted to representation on the Council.
Keport of the Committee on Resolutions
Professor Sturtevant, for himself and his colleagues, Messrs.
Orlinsky and Winnett, presented the following minute of the
Committee on Resolutions:
The American Oriental Society, having held an unusually successful
meeting at Ann Arbor, desires to thank its host, the University of Michi-
gan, for the use of its buildings, for the privilege of viewing its museum
exhibitions, for numerous courtesies on the part of the University Staff,
and particularly for the luncheon given to the members of the Society.
Our thanks go also to the Michigan Union, to the Michigan League, and to
the University Club for putting at our disposal their facilities for com-
fortable and pleasant living. We thank President and Mrs. Ruthven for
the delightful hospitality that we have experienced at their house; Mr.
Henry K. Schoch, whose guest we have been at luncheon ; and particularly
the Commitee on Arrangements for their efficient provision for all our needs.
Upon motion the minute was unanimously adopted by a rising
vote.
Appointment of Standing Committees
The President announced that in pursuance of a vote of the
Board of Directors he had appointed a Committee on Investments,
consisting of the Treasurer, Professor Price and Dr. Ogden.
He also announced that the Committee to Nominate Officers in
370 Proceedings
1936 was to consist of Professor Olmstead, Mrs. DeWitt, and
Professor Clark.
As auditors he appointed Professors Burrows and Torrey.
To the Committee on Arrangements he appointed Professor F.
Edgerton, chairman, Professors Archer, Burrows, Kraeling, Sturte-
vant and Torrey, with the Corresponding Secretary ex-officio; the
committee to have power to add to their number.
Resolutions Regarding Systems of Transliteration
On motion of Dr. Aga-Oglu it was voted that the Society should
express to the international Congress of Orientalists the Society’s
desire for the adoption of an international system of transliterating
Arabic, Iranic, and Turkish.
On motion of Professor Meek it was voted to make similar
representations regarding the transliteration of cuneiform.
Remarks on the same subjects were made by President Morgen-
stern and Professors Buckler, Buttenwieser, Sturtevant and Worrell.
Business Session of the Middle West Branch
The Middle West Branch met in the Alumni Memorial Hall at
9.15 Friday morning with the President, Professor Francis W.
Buckler, presiding.
The President announced the Committee on Nominations as
Professor Olmstead, President Morgenstern, and Professor Worrell.
Professor Sellers offered and the Branch accepted the following
Treasurer’s report:
Balance reported at last meeting $23.36
Expenditures — stamps and post cards 1.00
Balance on Band $22.36
For the committee on nominations Professor Olmstead presented
the following, who were elected unanimously:
President: Professor Martin Spbengling, of the University of Chicago.
Vice-President: Professor Sheldon Blank, of Hebrew Union College,
Cincinnati.
Secretary -Treasurer : Professor O. R. Sellers, of the Presbyterian Theo-
logical Seminary, Chicago.
Members of the Executive Committee: Professor Francis W. Buckler,
of Oberlin Graduate School of Theology, and Professor C. L. Pyatt, of the
College of the Bible, Lexington, Kentucky.
of the Society at Ann Arhor
371
The Branch voted to accept the invitation of the Presbyterian
Theological Seminary, Chicago, for the next annual meeting, and
set April 3-4, 1936, as the provisional date, with power to change
if necessary left to the Executive Committee.
For the Besolutions Committee Professor Price offered the
following resolutions, which were adopted:
We of the Middle-West Branch express our appreciation of the willing-
ness of the parent society to bring its meeting this year as far West as
Ann Arbor, and of the fact that so many members have attended.
We express our satisfaction also that so many members of the Middle-
West Branch have been present and participated in the program.
Iba M. Price,
C. L. Pyatt,
Chas. S. Braden.
The session of the Branch adjourned at 9.27 A. m.
Papers Bead at the Fifth Session
The following papers were read:
Rev. S. E. Johnson, of the Seabury Western Theological Seminary: The
“ Septuagint ” Translators of Amos.
Mr. R. M. Exgbeeg, of the Oriental Institute, University of Chicago:
The Cultural Ties of Megiddo in the Hyksos Period. Remarks by Professor
Speiser and Dr. Bull.
Professor O. R. Sellers, of the Presbyterian Theological Seminary:
Optimistic Passages in Ecclesiastes.
Professor Campbell Bonner, of the University of Michigan: Remarks
on some Syrian and Palestinian Bronze Amulets. Remarks by Professors
Kent and Irwin, Dr. Bull, President Morgenstern. and Miss Hahn.
Mr. W. S. McCullough, of the University of Toronto: A Mandaean
Incantation Bowl (illustrated). Remarks by Professors Bonner, Speiser,
Buckler, Olmstead, Meek, and Kent, and Dr. Debevoise.
Miss W T . Van Ingen, of the University of Michigan: Figurines from
Seleucia on the Tigris and the Question of Parthian Art (illustrated).
Remarks by Dr. Debevoise, Dr. Aga-Oglu, and Professors Meek, Olmstead,
Speiser, Buckler, and Kent.
The following papers were read by title:
Professor W. F. Albright, of the Johns Hopkins University: The Date
of the Hebrew Conquest of Canaan.
Professor J. J. Obebmann, of Yale University: New Light on the Semitic
Background of the Greek Alphabet.
372 Proceedings
Dr. G. V. Bobrinskoy, of the University of Chicago: The Sandhya-
worship.
Mr. Roswell S. Britton, of New York: Divination Relics in the
Chalfant-Tooker Collection.
Dr. S. Sakanishi and Dr. Swingle, of the Library of Congress: The
Hyakumanto Dharani, earliest dated Specimen of the Printer’s Art.
Professor N. J. Reich, of the Dropsie College: Archaic Demotic Papyri
and the Demotic and Greek Mummy Tickets of the University of Michigan
Collection.
Dr. William Rosenatt, of the Johns Hopkins University: Maimonides
as Lexicographer.
Professor F. R. Blake, of the Johns Hopkins University: (a) The
Hebrew Imperfect and Perfect with team Conversive. (b) The postpositive
Particles of Reference in Maya.
Miss Helen B. Chapin, of Mills College : An early Saiva mukhalinga
as a possible Prototype of Buddist Stupas representing the five Dhyani
Buddhas.
Professor Kurt Leidecker, of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute: A
new psychological Approach to Upanishadic Thinking.
Rev. Dr. H. H. Spoer, of New York: (a) Arabic magic medicinal Bowls,
(b) A tasa of as-Sultan al-Malik al-Mansur ’Asad ad-Din Sirkuh.
Professor L. C. Barret, of Trinity College: The Kashmirian Atharva
Veda, Book Seventeen.
Mr. Richard T. Hallock, of the Oriental Institute, University of Chi-
cago: The Syllabary Text Rm 2,588.
Professor George A. Cresset, of Syracuse University: The Fenghsien
Landscape.
Mr. Charles S. Gardner, of Newtonville, Mass: (a) Religious Tolera-
tion in China under the early Manchu Emperors, (b) Recently discovered
manuscript sources for Modern Chinese History.
Mr. Robert S. Hardy, of the University of Chicago: The Annunaki and
Igigi, Gods of Earth and Heaven.
Miss A. Rudolph, of Columbia University: Seven Letters from the
Samuel Johnson Correspondence. (Copies of these letters have been given
to the Library of the Society.)
Dr. R. A. Bowman, of the Oriental Institute, University of Chicago:
The Development of the Aramaic Business Document in Assyria.
The session adjourned at 12 si.
ANGEL AND TITAN: AN ESSAY IN YEDIC ONTOLOGY
Ananda K. Coomaraswajiy
Museum; of Fine Arts, Boston
Ekarh va idarh vi babhuva sarvam, EV. VIII. 58. 2.
Bhratararh varunam agna a vavrtsva, EV. IV. 1. 2.
Sarpya va adityah, PB. XXY. 15. 4. 1
Introduction
The leading idea to be developed in the present article is that
the Devas and Asuras, Angels and Titans, powers of Light and
powers of Darkness in EV., although distinct and opposite in opera-
tion, are in essence consubstantial, their distinction being a matter
1 “ This One becomes the All;” “Turn hitherwards, O Agni, they brother
Vanina ” (that is, “Reveal thyself,” since Agni is “Varuna’s face,” RV.
VII. 88. 2, Surya the “face” of the Angels, Mitra, Varuna, Agni,” I. 115.
1 ) ; “ The Serpents are the Suns.”
Abbreviations: RV., Rg Veda Samhita, (also to be understood where no
indication is given; references to the eighth book follow the consecutive
numbering, without separation of the Valakhilya) ; TS., Taittiriya Samhita;
AV., Atharva Veda Samhita; VS., Vdjasaneyi Samhita; MS., Maitrayani
Samhita; TB., Taittiriya Brahmana; AB.. Aitareya Brahmana; PB.,
Pahcaviihia Brahmana; KB., Kausitaki Brahmana; 6B., Satapatha
Brahmana; JB., Jaiminiya Brahmana; JUB., Jaiminiya Vpanisad Brah-
mana; GB., Gopatha Brahmana; A A., Aitareya Jranyaka; BrD., Brhad
Devatd; N., Yaska, Nirukta ; BU.. Brhaddranyaka Vpanisad; ChU.,
Chandogya Vpanisad; KU., Katha Vpanisad; TP., Taittiriya Pratisakhya;
Ap. 6r. S., Apastamba Srauta Sutra; Mbh., Mahdbharata; BG., Bhagavad
Gita; R., Ramayana; BP., Bhdgavata Parana; YS., Yoga Sutra; D.,
Digha Nikdya; SP., Saddharma Pundarika; SBE., Sacred Books of the
East; HOS., Harvard Oriental Series; JAOS., Journal of the American
Oriental Society; WZKM., Wiener Zeitschrift fiir die Kunde des Morgen-
landes; VM., Macdonell, Vedic Mythology.
Some of the problems discussed have been previously raised by Professor
W. Norman Brown, “ The Sources and Nature of purusa in the Purusasukta
(Rig Veda 10. 90),” JAOS. 51. 108-118, and “Proselyting the Asuras,”
JAOS. 39. 100-103. The present treatise is independent of Siecke,
Drachenkampfe, Leipzig, 1907, and Scharbau, Die Idee der Schopfung in
der vedischen Literatur, Stuttgart. 1933.
The following are invariable renderings : deva, “ Angel ; ” asura, “ Titan ; ”
ahi, “ Serpent ” (sarpa also, “ Serpent ” or “ serpent ”) ; vrtra, “ Dragon; ”
mayd, “ Magic ; ” mayin, “ Magician.”
373
374 Angel and Titan: An Essay in Vedic Ontology
not of essence but of orientation, revolution, or transformation, as
indicated by such express statements as “The Serpents are the
Suns” in PB., and the constant employment of vrt, to “turn,”
“ -vert,” “ -volve,” etc. in RV. and Brahmanas, in connection with
the relations of Angels and Titans, passim. In this case, the Titan
is potentially an Angel, the Angel still by nature a Titan; the
Darkness in actu is Light, the Light in potentia Darkness ; whence
the designations Asura and Deva may be applied to one and the
same “ Person ” according to the mode of operation, as in the case
of Varuna, or alternatively, there may be a distinction of names in
the same sense, as in RY. I. 163.3, “Trita art thou (Agni) by
interior operation” ( guhyena vratena). At the same time it is
proposed to show that whereas the Angels are typically “men”
or “birds,” the Titans are typically theriomorphic and in par-
ticular ophidian (sarpy a). These theses are of primary importance
in the exegesis of iconography and that of “ serpent-worship.” The
proposition as outlined above is summarized in the citations pre-
fixed by way of “ argument.” In the present essay account is taken
only of the masculine powers ; in connection with the corresponding
feminine powers, the matter of sarpatva has been discussed in
“ The Darker Side of Dawn,” Smithsonian Miscellaneous Publi-
cations, vol. 94, no. 1 ; the two papers should be read together.
1. Indra and Namuci
The story of Indra and the Titan Namuci, “Holdfast,” has
been admirably discussed by Bloomfield. 2 Here we shall only refer
* “ The Story of Indra and Namuci,” JAOS. 15. 143 ff. I do not agree
with Bloomfield that the “ foam of the waters ” used by Indra as his
weapon necessarily means “lead.” In SB. XII. 7. 3. 3 Indra’s vajra is
actually made of the foam of the waters. Or we might understand that
Indra cut off Namuci’s head with the foam “ by way of vajra,” following
Mahldhara on VS. X. 33, and on the analogy of PB. XV. 5. 20, “with a
reed by way of vajra” and JB. III. 266, “blade of grass into which
Indra infused his vajra.” In X. 61. 8 phena = retas. If then we correlate
I. 103. 7 vajrena with II. 11. 2 vlryena , and recall that virya is not merely
bravery” but also “seed” (as rendered by Buhler in translation of
Manu. I. 8), it is apparent in what sense, viz. by the “ seminal virtue ”
as vajra, that Indra decapitated Namuci (and thus generated life) ; and
this is confirmed by PB. XV. 5. 20 isilcam vajram, if we equate isika with
vetasa, as employed significantly in X. 95. 4 snathita vaitasena, cf. SB. IX.
1. 2. 22 where the bamboo (vetasa ) is a kind of “water” symbolically
Ananda K. Coomaraswamy
375
to what is pertinent for present purposes. Indra and Namuei,
Titan and Magician, whose identity with Vrtra is evident, had been
boon companions, that is drinkers of soma together, ante prin-
cipium. A compact is made that Indra shall not slay Namuei
“with anything dry nor with anything wet, neither by day or
night,” that is, ostensibly, not under any circumstances whatever.
There is indeed a marked reluctance on the part of either to slay
the other; thus, in MS. IV. 3.4 Namuei says “Let us twain be
friends,” Indra replying “ I will not slay.” This reluctance on the
part of the Angels to injure the Titans, who are in fact their
kinsmen, recurs throughout the traditional literature; cf. Mitra’s
similar reluctance to slay Soma, SB. IV. I. 4. 8, Arjuna’s reluctance
in BG. I. 26 f. (“I will not fight”; Arjuna’s opponents, “ances-
tors, relatives, and friends,” are in fact the Vedic Titans), and
Indra’s again in Jataka, text I. pp. 202-203 (where “ not for the
sake of empire” parallels BG. I. 35 “not for the kingship of the
three worlds,” the dominion in question being in both cases that
which is in fact reversed in BV. X. 124. 4, pary avard rastram, and
that which is ultimately won by the Pandavas in Mbh.).
Indra nevertheless finds means to slay Namuei, evading the
conditions by a subterfuge. Namuci’s severed head “rolls after”
( anvavarta ) Indra, bitterly reproaching him as the “ betrayer of a
friend” and “treacherous hero-slayer of the innocent” (TB. I.
7. 1. 7-8 and PB. XII. 6, cf. Mbh. IX. 2436). Indra atones by means
of a sacrifice (no doubt a Pravargya ceremony, where the “head
of the sacrifice ” is symbolically restored) and an expiatory bath
in the river Aruna.
In the RV. accounts Indra, “ seeking a broadway for Mann,
wrung off ( avartayah ) the head of Namuei . . . churned ( mathayat )
Namuci’s head, to wit the bright revolving gem ” ( asmdnam cit
svaryam vartamanam, V. 30. 7-8) ; which “gem” is the Sun, cf.
V. 47. 3 where Agni is prsnir asma, “ variegated gem,” and VII.
104. 19 pra vartaya divo asmdnam, “ set Heaven’s gem a-rolling,”
addressed to Indra as demon-slayer.
Notice should be taken here of the equivalence of vrt, and math
•= “twirl”; the latter root is used in EV. passim with reference
used to "quench” ( samayati ) the fierce interior aspect of Agni, i. e. to
"set aside his scorching evil” (sucam asya papmanam apahanti, i&. 20),
which is just what Indra does to Namuei.
376
Angel and Titan: An Essay in Vedic Ontology
(1) to the generation of Agni by Matarisvan (= Vayu, Spiritus) 1 * 3
in the beginning, or by sacrifices in the analogous rite, and (2) to
the rape of Soma by the Hawk ( syena = Agni, as demonstrated by
Bloo mfi eld, JAOS. 16. 11 If.). The nature of the movement im-
plied in both cases is the same, viz. a turning round, hence our
rendering “ twirl,” the significance “ churning ” being involved
only in so far as the process is applied to a liquid, as in samudra-
mathana. The most important passages for the production of Agni
by “twirling” include I. 141.3, where Matarisvan “twirls him
from his ground {budhnat) , from the Buffalo’s image (varpasah) ,
when he lay hidden” ( guild santam <= ab infra), 4 who is thus
“ brought to us from the Supernal Father ” ( pituh paramat ) ;
III. 9. 5, where Matarisvan brings “ Agni hither from afar, who
had been hidden ( tirohitam ) from us, brings from the Angels him
that had been twirled” (mathitam) ; and YI. 16.13 where
Atharvan “twirled ( nir amanthat) thee, Agni, from- the lotus
( puskarat — budhnat, above), 5 from the head of Yisva ( -rupa) , the
3 Tie Windnatur ” of Matarisvan (=Matali) is discussed by Char-
pentier, Kleine Beitrage zur indoiranischen Mythologie, Uppsala, 1911, pp.
68-83; Charpentier concludes (in general agreement with the view of the
Indian commentators) “ Alles in alien kann ich nicht umhin die Windnatur
des Matartevan-Matali fur sekundar in Bezug auf seine Natur als Prometheus
und einer der ‘Vater’ zu halten.” Matarisvan is Vata-Vayu, the Gale,
the Dawnwind (I. 122. 3 vasarha . . . vatah) who awakens Agni (pro
bodhaya purandhim, see Bloomfield in JAOS. 16. 18 f.), he fans the” flame of
Life (VI. 6. 3, where Agni is vatajutasah) . Cf. the “Spirit,” the “Wind,”
and the “ East Wind ” in Genesis I. 2 and VIII. 1, and Exodus XIV. 2.
Reference to the dawn wind can be traced in almost all nativities, cf. the
mediaeval German “ Do in der Stal kimt uberall der kalte Wind herein.”
1 Varpas rupa (Sayana); the manifested Agni is “The Father’s own
image abiding in himself (cf. PB. VII. 6. 2) . . . his image, that is to
say, his Son” (Eckhart), cf. AV. X. 8. 28 (= JUB. III. 11), “Is he their
eldest or their youngest? Is he their Son or their Father? Truly it
is one Angel that has entered into intellect, erst was he born, and yet
is even now in embryo,” i. e. as in RV. III. 55. 7, “ albeit he proceeded
foremost, still he stays within his ground.”
5 It hardly needs to be demonstrated here (cf. my Elements of Buddhist
conography, 193o, pp. 19-21) that Sayana correctlv explains the lotus,
f™’ a * a ^ignation of the ground of existence in anv world. It may
be added however, in connection with the kenning abja, “bom of water,”
equivalent to “ lotus,” puskara, that in VII. 34. 16 this epithet is applied
j-erpen I celebrate with litanies the Serpent water-born (abjdm
■ ■ • ahxm, cf. apam napat = Agni), seated in the rivers’ ground, the
Ananda K. Coomaraswamy
377
priest” ( murdhno visvasya vaghatah). Those for the production
of Soma by twirling are I. 93. 6 where “ the Hawk twirls (or
‘grinds/ amathndt) Soma from the Eock” ( pari syeno adreh),
and IX. 77.2, Soma “whom the Hawk from Heaven wrung”
(yam divas pari syeno mathayat, cf. in V. 30. 8 cited above, siro
dasasya namucer mathayat). The latter passages are especially
intelligible in the light of the repeated “ Vrtra was Soma ” in SB.
2. Makha
The references to a Titan Makha driven away by the Bhrgus in
KV. IX. 101. 13, or whose head is cut off by Indra in X. 171. 2,
presupposes the Brahmana versions in which Makha’s head becomes
the Sun. In X. 171. 2 Indra “lifts from his hide raging Makha’s
head” ( maTchasya dodhatah siro ’va tvaco hharah), anticipating
the prayer in the fourth verse, to bring back from the West into
the East “the Sun, Vasa that had been hidden from the Angels”
rivers’ beds ” ( budhne nadinam rajahsu sidan — a little difficult, but evidently
tantamount to nadl-vrtam applied to Vrtra elsewhere), who in the next
verse is referred to more specifically as Ahi Budhnya. The consequent
exegesis is very elegant; for we may say that just as Ahi is abja, not
indeed as being a lotus, but like the lotus in this respect as well as in
that he is Agni's source, so Agni born from the lotus is abjaja. In full
agreement with this is a passage in which Agni is described as found
“where he has crept up out of the waters onto the lotus-leaf "(adbhya
upodasrptam puskaraparne, SB. VII. 3. 2. 14), with which may be com-
pared also the account of the procession of Arbuda Kadraveya (son of
Kadru, i. e. of the Serpent Queen, and probably the same as Ahi, at least
an ahi), ‘ ‘The Serpent Prophet had made an incantation, thereby he crept
forth, and that, indeed, is called ‘ Arbuda’s creeping forth ’ ” (sarparsi
mantrakrt yenopoddsarpat . . . arbudodasarpani nama, AB. VI. I, where
also Arbuda is called a venomous serpent or basilisk, aslvisah, the Skt.
equivalent of Avestan azhi-visha in Azhi-vishapa ; from PB. IX. 8. 7-8,
cf. IV. 9. 4-6, it appears that the mantra alluded to is RV. X. 189, for
here it is “by the sarparajhya verse that Arbuda puts off his corrupted
skin,” mrtdrh tvacam apahata).
For the lotus ( = earth) as Agni’s birthplace cf. also VIII. 72. 11, where
soma is “poured in the lotus” ( nisiktam, puskare), and SB. VIII. 6. 3. 7,
yonir vat puskara-parnam. RV. VII. 33. 11, where Vasistha (Agni)
brahman . . . jatah . . . puskare, corresponds to GB. I. 16 brahma ha rai
brahmanam puskare asrje. That Agni is said to creep up out of the
waters onto the lotus corresponds to the Gnostic symbol of nymph and
imago.
378
Angel and Titan: An Essay in Vedic Ontology
( suryam . . . devanam cit tiro vasam) : “ raging Makha’ s head ”
corresponding to “ raging Vrtra’s head ” severed by Indra with his
hundred-jointed bolt in VIII. 6. 6 ( vi cid vrtrasya dodhato vajrena
siro bibheda) ; “ Vasa ” to that “ equine Vasa ” who is aided by the
Asvins in I. 112. 10, etc., and in VIII. 46. 33 is evidently the Sun;
and the “ hide ” to the “ black skin that Indra hates ” ( indra -
dvistam . . . tvacam asiknlm, IX. 73. 5), the “ Serpent’s inveterated
skin ” of IX. 86. 44 where Soma “ even as Ahi, creeps forward
from the ancient skin” (a hir na jurnam ati sarpati), in harmony
with PB. XXV. 15. 4 where the serpents " abandoning their in-
veterated skin (hitva jirnam tvacam) creep forward (atisarpanti ) ,
put away Death, and become Adityas.” Somewhat to anticipate,
we may remark that the bisection of the Serpent may be equated
with the diremption of Heaven and Earth.
Turning now to the Brahmana versions, in PB. VII. 5. 6 Agni,
Indra, Vayu, and Makha, all desirous of glory (yasas) take part
in a sacrificial session. Makha obtains the glory, but as he leans
on his bow, the end springs up, cutting off his head, and "this
became the pravargya, for Makha is indeed the sacrifice.” This
pravargya (or pravarga) is also called in ritual the mahavira, or
gharma, and " the head of the sacrifice.” In TA. V. 1. 1-5, Makha
is called Vaisnava (Saumya in SB. XIV. 1. 2. 17), the bow “spins
up ” ( udavartat ) the head, which circles about Heaven and Earth
(dyavaprthivl anupravartata, cf. BV. V. 30. 8, vartamdnam
rodasl) ; and “ that he turned forth ” ( prdvartata , i. e. * proceeded,’
cf. pravrtti) is the origin of the term pravargya, that he was
glowing that of the term gharma, that he had great heroism that
of the term mahavira.” TB. II. 6. 13. 1, sa bibheda valam magham,
cf. BV. III. 34. 10 bibheda valam, suggests the identity of the per-
sonified Cavern, Vala (cf. vara, varana, varuna, vrtra, varaha)
with Makha, but that the reading is magham and not makham,
cf. IX. 20. i Icrilur makho na mamhayuh pavitram soma gacchasi,
even as Makha, Soma, etc., emphasizes the indivisibility of reck-
less bravery, wealth, and generosity in the ideal hero. The account is
fuller in SB. XIV. 1. 1 ; the Angels present are Indra, Agni, Soma,
Makha, and \ isnu (perhaps we ought to read Soma-Makha or
Makha A isnu) , it is V isnu’s head that is severed by the bow, the
string of which is gnawed by ants, and this head becomes “ yonder
Sun , the rest of him lies outspread ( pravrj , whence SB. derives
Ananda X. Coomaraswamy
379
pravargya, better than as in TA. cited above). 6 Indra rushes up
to the fallen “hero” (mahavira) engulfs him (taiii paryagrhnat,
in other words, swallows him up, or rather drinks him, who is
really Soma), and thus “ became makhavat, for Makhavat is he who
is metaphysically ( paroksena ) Maghavat ” ; moreover, “ Makha is
the same as Visnu . . . the Sacrifice.” 7 It is evident that an
6 In RV. V. 30. 15 the gharma is said to be heated pravrje, “ for the
Pravargya.” Closely related to pravrj is Vedie para, vrj, to “ re-ject,”
“cast away,” so often employed in connection with Agni RV. II. 13. 12;
II. 15. 7; IV. 30. 16; and probably in the same connection in I. 112. 8).
In I. 116. 24, Soma too is “like Rebha, pravrktam”-, while in X. 8. 9
para vrj in the form para, vark is used in connection with the decapitation
of Visvarupa; whence it may be inferred that pardvrj, pardvrkta, applied
to Agni and Soma are said with reference to the deposition of the body
after decapitation. These terms occur in association with the expression
“ making the blind to see, the lame to walk,” and if as we suppose this
means “ effecting the Sun’s procession,” who had been as it were a
“blindworm,” the connection of ideas is evident; for the Sun being
Varuna’s “ eye,” passim, Varuna can only be thought of as blind while
yet the Sun is tamasa apagulham , guha nihitam, etc., i. e. before the
section of the Serpent’s head, and as “ crawling,” which is expressed by
saying that the Sun was originally “footless” ( apad , often tantamount
to “ serpent,” cf. SB. I. 6. 3. 9, “ in that he, Soma, was footless, he was
Ahi) and is footless until Varuna “makes feet for him, that he may
proceed ” ( I. 24. 8 ) ; for the corresponding distinction of the “ footless ” and
the “ footed ” aspects of the feminine principles, see The Darker Side of
Dawn. For a fuller discussion cf. vrj or varj on RV. see Bloomfield in
JAOS. 35. 273 ff. ; the primary sense is that of “ do,” and hence “ do for,”
as in the expression “ done for ” = “ ruined.” Para, vrj corresponds also
to parasa in IV. 18. 8 and parasyat in X. 72. 8.
With reference to the designations of Agni as prsnir asmd and of the
Sim as vartamdnam asmanam previously cited (whence the use in ritual
of a “ variegated stone,” asmanam prsnim, representing “ yonder Sun,”
SB. IX. 2. 3. 14), it may be observed that these formulations, taken in
connection with the ophidian character of the deity ab intra, explain the
origin of what is now (inasmuch as the significance has been forgotten)
strictly speaking a superstition, the notion viz. that there is a jewel in
a serpent’s head.
7 By devouring, or as we must phrase it in the present connection,
drinking Makha-Soma, Indra appropriates the fallen hero’s desirable
qualities by an incorporation that is at the same time sacrificial and
Eucharistic, cf. John VI. 56, “ He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my
blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.” This was, of course, the basic
principle of cannibalism, and it is notable that it should have survived in
both the Vedic and the Christian rituals of Communion.
380
Angel and Titan: An Essay in Vedic Ontology
expiation is required (the slaying of Vrtra, parallel to that of
Visvarupa, is indeed one of Indra’s kilbisani, AB. YU. 28 ; for
which sins of Indra’s see Bloomfield in JAOS. 19 (2) . 118 f.) . But
only Dadhyanc Atharvan knows how the head of the sacrifice is to
be put on again, and Indra, perfectly satisfied with what has been
done, forbids him to reveal it. 8 The Asvins nevertheless, as also
The Brahmana accounts are clearly prefigured in the briefer Vedic
references. That Makha is the sacrifice and cause of its efficacy is par-
ticularly clear in IX. 20. 7, “Thou, Soma, goest playfully (krlluh) unto
the filter, even as Makha prodigal of gifts (makho na rnanhayuh ) , lending
the laud its heroic-virtue (suviryam) where also it should be noted that
krlluh (cf. the use of kril elsewhere in RV.) implies the same as lilava-
tarana, or in other words, a willing sacrifice. In IX. 17. 6 Soma is the
“head of the sacrifice” (murdhan yajhasya) . In IX. 5-6 Soma is assimi-
lated both to Indra and to Prajapati explicitly, and by the expressions
employed, to Agni as in I. 13. In I. 134. 1, VIII. 7. 27, and VIII.
46. 25 Vayu alone or the Devas collectively are invited to “ partake of
Makha (makhasya davane, better perhaps, “to partake of the sacrifice”),
and “to be lavish” ( davane ) in turn; and that all actually partake of
Makha’s virtue in this way may be inferred from the use of makha,
“brave” (in battle, cf. giganto machy) as an epithet not only of Indra
himself (III. 34. 2) but also of Pusan, Savitr, Agni, Alvins, and Maruts.
A pale reflection of the foregoing doctrine survives incidentally in Pali
Buddhism, where it is explained that Indra is called Maghava because as
a man he had once been a brahman of that name” ( Dialogues of the
Buddha, 2, p. 297, citing S. I. 230 and J. IV. 403 = V. 137). Makkha, in
Pali, is “ wrath,” “ mercilessness,” etc.
8 Dadhyanc himself is made to suffer decapitation, after which his head
is replaced with that of a horse; a parallel to the decapitation not only
of that by which the procession of Agni-Surya is effected, where there is
a symbolic replacement in the ritual, but also to that of Gane&a who in
Saiva mythology is related to Skanda Kumara as is Agni to Indra in BV.
(the relation of brahma to ksatra) , and losing his head, is given that of
an elephant.
The "mystery.” the “honey” i. e. “soma” (cf. X. 68. 8 asnapinaddham
madhu) doctrine is that of the true meaning of the sacrificial ritual, its
significance as an act of expiation and reintegration, an undoing of the
work of disintegration with which the world begins; which mystery,
although outwardly enacted in the ritual, is even now by no means to he
revealed to any but a qualified student (SB. loc. cit.) .
The nature of the “ sweet doctrine ” is nevertheless sufficiently indicated
m SB. XIV. 1. 2. 18, and more clearly than in TS. VII. 3. 1. 4; three
Mahavira pots have been made, one addressed with the formula “ Makha’s
head art thou,” and the other silently, and it is explained, “ By whatever
one does ( karoti ) with Yajus formula, by that one constitutes ( sarhskaroti ,
Ananda K. Coomaraswamy
381
in EV. I. 116. 12, get the secret from him, and they instruct the
Angels accordingly how by the proper use of the Mahavira vessel,
“the head of the sacrifice is put on again, the sacrifice is made
whole ” ; the Asvins themselves are then admitted to a share in the
sacrifice. 9 SB. XIV. 1. 2. 17 gives formulae for making the vessel,
which has parts corresponding to those of a head, and when com-
pleted it is addressed with the words “ Makha’s head art thou,” taken
from YS. XXX YII. 8, SB. adding “for it is indeed the head
of Makha Saumya,” i. e. of that Makha who is or was really Soma,
cf. “ Now Vrtra was Soma,” cited below. In PB. VI. 5 the Sun
is emanated ( asrjyata ) from the head of Prajapati, “ he 10 smote
off his head” ( udahan instead of the usual udvavarta ) , and “that
became the drona-kalasa,” corresponding to SB. IV. 4. 3. 4 cited
below. The identity of Makha-Saumya with Prajapati is very
‘integrates’) that aspect ( ruparn ) of Prajapati that is explicit and
finite (niruktas ca pwrimitas ca) , and by whatever one does silently
(tu^nim) thereby one constitutes that aspect of him that is implicit and
infinite,” so that by doing in both ways one constitutes Prajapati in his
entirety ( sarvam Jcrtsnam), and thus reintegrates himself. This explana-
tion applies moreover to the practice of “ silent recitation ” elsewhere, e. g.
manasa stuvate in TS. VII. 3. 1. 4, cf. SB. II. 1. 4. 29; cf. also the orationes
secretae in the Christian sacrifice (the Mass). The principle of subtle
(suksma) as distinguished from gross (sthula) worship in later practice
is analogous.
As to the ritual itself, it should never be forgotten that “ the observance
of the rule thereof is the same as at the creation” (SB. XIV. 1. 2. 26 and
3. 1. 36, etc.); and inasmuch as the “creation” is strictly speaking
eternal (see my “Eternal Creation in the Rg Veda” to appear in the
Ramakrishna Memorial Xumber of the Vedanta Kesari in 1936), it may
be said of the sacrifice as envisaged in the Brahmanas, what has been
affirmed of the Christian sacrifice, the Mass, that “ it is not confined to,
nor limited by, the conditions of time and space ” ( Bede Frost, The
Meaning of Mass, Oxford, 1934, p. 63), and as to its efficacy, what is
affirmed of the Hebrew sacrifice, that “ the impulse of the sacrifice is the
mainstay of the worlds ” and that it is by the impulse of the smoke from
below that “the lamp (i. e. the Sun) is kindled above” (Zohar, Vayehi
section, II. 374 in the Sperling and Simon version). Here as elsewhere
there is nothing whatever unique in the Vedic point of view.
" In which they originally had no part, as we know also in connection
with the story of Cyavana (PB. XIV. 6. 10; SB. IV. 1. 5; JB. III. 120 f.,
etc.), whom we identify with Prajapati.
10 “He;” “Indra” must be supplied. In SB. IV. 4. 3. 4 (Kanva),
devah . . . vyagrhnata, (Madhyamdina) udvavarta.
382 Angel and Titan: An Essay in Vedic Ontology
evident also in SB. XIV. 1. 2, where both alike are the sacrifice;
even apart from which the equivalence would be obvious, inasmuch
as in both cases it is always a primary purpose of the ritual to
reintegrate the creator, when he is disintegrated by the expression
of creatures, has fallen down, and cannot rise (for Prajapati, see
SB. I. 6. 3. 35-37, PB. IV. 10. 1, VI. 5. 1, etc.).
S. The Sacrifice of King Soma
In SB. IV. 4. 3. 4 we find “ Now Vrtra was Soma. 11 When the
Angels smote him, his head whirled up ( udvavarta ) and became
the drona-kalasa,” i. e. the soma-vessel, cf. PB. VI. 5. 7 "the vessel
of the Angels.” That the head becomes a vessel explains the
designation of certain vessels as kapala, “ skull-cup,” in this and
other ritual usage. “ Vessel of the Angels ” would appear to be
the Sun, rather than the Moon, which would be the vessel of the
Asuras.
The preparation of soma represented an actual sacrifice of King
Soma, as is explicit in SB. IV. 3. 4. 1, cf. IV. 4. 5, 21-22, where
the pressing of the stalks is called the slaying of Soma, and the dry
stalks are symbolically rejuvenated by immersion in water, as
tantamount to tincture (rasa), as an act of expiation; actual sacri-
fice is similarly indicated in the use of root sam in RV. V. 43. 4,
lahu . . . somasya ye samitara, “these arms that give Soma his
quietus.”
Recalling the equivalence of vrt and math it can he clearly seen
how the grinding of the soma-stalks reflects the passion of Makha-
Saumya or V rtra. That the obtaining of soma has also to be repre-
sented as a rape accomplished by the Hawk (Agni) on behalf of
Indra, or as a theft on Indra’s own part (another of his kilhisdni)
depends of course, on the well known fact that whether as King or
Tree, Soma was originally in possession of the Titans, and by them
well guarded, cf. X. 97, where Soma is the king of the herbs, that
were in being long prior to t he being of the Angels themselves. 12
Vrtra was Soma seems to render the text most literally, and better
agrees with the sequence of events than does Eggeling’s “ Soma was Vrtra.”
It is notorious that the Titans were the first possessors of Soma,
mighty soma-drinkers before the nativity of any Angel; there “the
Gandharva protects his (Soma’s) seat,” IX. 83. 4 etc., thence that the
Hawk (Agni) brings it for Indra, or that Indra steals it for himself,
RV. passim. Soma as a tree is the king of plants, the Tree of Life as
Ananda K. Coomaraswamy
383
In connection with the idea of sacrifice it may be noted also that
the designations soma and purusa are definitely assimilated in X.
51. 8, where “ the Person of the herbs ” whom Agni obtains when
he accepts the priesthood can hardly be other than King Soma.
It is “as Ahi that he (Soma) creeps forth from his inveterated
skin, and as a lusty glaucous courser that he runs and plays”
( ahir na jurnam ati sarpati tvacam atyo na hrilann asarad vrsa
harih, IX. 86. 44), tallying with “ Yrtra was Soma” cited above,
cf. the designation of Soma as “Boar” ( varaha , IX. 97. 7).
4 . Visvarupa and Vrtra
Visvarupa, “ Omniform,” occurs both as the name of a Titan,
and as an epithet with application to his father Tvastr, the creator
per artem. In KV. II. 11. 19, X. 8. 7-9, and X. 99. 6 (combining
these accounts) we find that Trita Aptya (i. e. Agni, ab intra,
eager to proceed) in alliance with Indra slaughters the three-
headed, 13 six-eyed, seven-rayed Visvarupa, wrenching away ( para
distinguished from the Tree of Death, ef. Genesis III. 22 “ lest he take
also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever.” As a liquid, obtained
when the “tree” is sacrificed, the soma is the sap (rasa), the blood of
the tree, the Water of Life. On the other hand, the soma drunk in
earthly rituals is never that very wine of life whereby the intoxicated
Indra is enabled to overcome the Titans and to bring about the whole
emanation, but only rasa, amrta, analogically. Expressions such as
parvatavrdh, IX. 46. 1 or nabha. p-rthivya girisu, IX. 82. 3 (cf. V. 43. 4,
IX. 72. 7, and YaSna XLII. 5) are by no means in the beginning designa-
tions of a local habitat, the site of which may have been lost in later
times ; the soma is “ lost ” in quite another sense, “ they fancy when the
plant is pressed that they drink of the very soma, but of him the Brahmans
understand as Soma, no one ever tastes, none tastes who dwells on
earth,” X. 85. 3-4. “ What the Brahmans understand by ‘ Soma ’ ” is not,
of course, a physical entity. In this connection the explicit enunciation
of a doctrine of transubstantiation in AB. VII. 31 is significant: “it is
metaphysically ( paroksena ) that he obtains the drinking of soma, it is
not literally ( pratyaksam. ) partaken of by him. The Xyagrodha is
metaphysically King Soma; metaphysically the Ksatriya obtains the
semblance of the spiritual power ( brahmano rupam) , by means of the
priest, the consecration, and the invocation, as it were.” Soma, amrta, is
divi . . . ffulham, RV. VI. 44. 23-24. Cf. SB. III. 6. 2. 10-11, where the
only approach to Soma is by way of diksa, and tapas.
15 The three heads of Visvarupa, like those of the Sun, may correspond
to the three worlds, cf. JUB. Ill, 11-12, where it is “by three turns”
384 Angel and Titan: An Essay in Vedic Ontology
varJc) or carrying off (ava . . ■ bharat) his heads and lifting his
cattle. In II. 11. 19 Indra hands over Yisvarupa to “ Trita of our
party,” and it is to be inferred that a decapitation takes place, for
in the next verse the Sun is set a-going ( avartayat suryo na
cahram ). 14 In X. 99. 6 the epithets are unmistakable, but the
dasa is called the Boar ( varaha ), and not otherwise named.
(avrdbhir) of the Gayatra (Saman) that the Purusa conquers Heaven,
Midhome, and This World, and all that is in them; the Gayatra itself
being tryavrt. The use of avrt here, answers to the use of root vrt
throughout, as well as to the special sense of avrtta, tantamount to
pravrtta, and meaning a coming into the worlds.
11 Indra’s connection with the Sun has been sometimes misunderstood;
his position is strictly speaking that of Lucifer before the Fall. Indra
is never at war with his fellow-Angels. It is for them that he is besought
to “pull the Sun’s wheel towards us” ( pra suras cahram vrhatad abhike,
IV. 16. 12), it is from the Titans and for Kutsa as he struggled that
Indra “steals the solar wheel” (cahram musaya . . . suryam, IV. 30. 4) ;
just as he “fixes ” ( ni khidat) the wheel and “steals away” ( apa dhayi)
Life Universal (visvayu, i. e. Agni) from the Great Fiend (maho druhah,
IV. 28. 2), and entirely parallel to this is his abduction of the Word
( vacam musayati , I. 130. 9), whose restoration is demanded and effected
in X. 109. In X. 23. 5 where Indra “wins” ( jayat ) the Sun as if at a
game of chance, it is from the Titans that he wins, not that “he
vanquishes the Sun ” as pretended in VM. p. 31.
Indra’s great rebellion against the Father, by which the kingdom
is overturned, takes place in the beginning. Nevertheless in RV. for the
most part Indra observes the legitimate relations of hsatra to brahma,
he acts as Fidei Defensor (vratapd), his courage and loyalty to his
companions are far from ignoble; the dual Indragni even preserves the
primordial coincidence of kingship and priesthood in one and the same
person. But in the later literature (BrD. VII. 54-58) and especially iu
Buddhism, the possibilities inherent in the principle of temporal power are
more fully developed; Indra becomes Mammon.
It must be realised, of course, that Indra, Lucifer and Satan, must not
be confused with the “evil” power of Darkness, Death (mrtyu, mdra) ,
the Godhead, the “ unkindly Father ” himself. The width of the entire
universe divides the one from the other, divides the “outer darkness”
from the Darkness ab intra, “ impervious to all illumination and hidden
from all knowledge” (Dionysius, Ep. ad Caium Monach., cited St. Thomas,
Sum. Theol. III. 92. 1), but of which St. Thomas says that it is called
Darkness 1 on account of its surpassing brightness,” i. e. as being a
blinding light. Indra, although like every other Angel of Titan birth,
remains an Angel even in his pride, being like Satan “fallen not in nature,
but in grace”; whereas the Dragon-Father never was nor ever can be
natured. it is he that by his nature natures all things.
Ananda K. Coomaraswamy
385
In the longer versions of TS. II. 4. 12 and 5. 1 ff. (cf. KB. XV.
2-3) Visvarupa is Tvastr’s son by “a sister of the Titans,”
Visvarupa has already been slain, and Tvastr prepares a soma sacri-
fice, from which Indra is excluded. But Indra seizes the soma by
force, as in so many other texts he is said to have done. 15 Tvastr
whirls ( avartayat ) the remainder of the soma upon the sacrificial
fire, saying “ Hail, wax great, as Indra’s foe.” It springs to life
and is called Vrtra, either because Tvastr “averted” it into the
fire, or (more correctly) because it “ envelopes ” these worlds. 18
This Vrtra takes demoniac possession of Agni and Soma, who thus
fall into the asurya, power. Indra, and even Tvastr (as also in
EV. I. 80. 14) are alarmed. Tvastr provides Indra with his bolt
(as usual, e. g. EV. I. 85. 9, but in VI. 44. 22 Indu — i. e. Indra,
as in II. 22 — “ steals his unkindly father’s weapons and his
magic ”) and Indra raises it to slay Vrtra, but Agni and Soma cry
out that they are “in him.” Indra makes Vrtra gape, and Agni
and Soma escape from his mouth. 17 Heaven and Earth are ex-
tracted by the promise of lights to the former, species (rupani) to
15 Another of Indra’s many kilbisani. In RV. III. 48. 4 “ When at
birth he had overcome (his father) Tvastr, Indra by main force stole
(amusya) the soma and drank it”; in VI. 44. 22 Indu (Indra, here as in
II. 22) “steals the weapons (ayudhani) and magic-arts ( miiyah ) of his
unkindly father ” ( pitur aiivasya — mark the contrast in X. 124. 2-4, where
Agni, although he chooses Indra and deserts the Father, calls himself
unkind, the Father kind) ; in IV. 17. 12 “What recks Indra of his Mother,
what of the Father Progenitor that begat him? (He recks only) of that
which immediately whets his fury” (viz. the soma-draught). Indra’s
violent disruption of the preexisting harmony, and brutal treatment of
his parents, as in IV. 18, although really in accordance with the Supernal
Father’s providence (dhitim pitur . . . parasya, X. 8. 7), becomes an
occasion of reproach; for these and the other offences, although he acts
by infallible necessity and “ does what must be done,” Indra is sometimes
excluded from the sacrifice, e. g. in AB. VII. 28, where his tort against
Brhaspati as well as Visvarupa is cited, and “ because he stole the soma
of Tvastr, even today the temporal power ( k.satra ) is deprived of soma
drinking.” Agni, on the other hand, is the Redeemer ( kilbisasprt , X. 71.
10 ).
The derivation of Vrtra, like that of Varuna, from rr, to “ cover,”
“ enclose,” “ hide away,” would seem preferable to a derivation from vrt.
17 In X. 90. 13-14 it is Agni and Indra that proceed from the mouth
of Purusa; the Purusa’s head is “ con-verted ” (sam avartata) into Dyauh,
here evidently the Sun.
386 Angel and Titan: An Essay in Vedic Ontology
the latter. 18 Very significant is the remark addressed by Indra to
Visnu, “ Come, let ns grasp that by which he (Vrtra) is these
worlds” ( vo yena ayarn idam), cf. EV. X. 88. 9 where “in him
(Agni) the Angels offered up the whole universe ” ( yasmin
ajuhavur bhuvanani visva). In SB. I. 6. 3 the course of events >s
similar ; when the soma is cast into the fire “ inasmuch as it was
whirling ( vartamanah ) it became the Dragon, inasmuch as it was
footless ( a pad ) it became the Serpent.” All things, Angels,
sciences, glory, food, and beauty come out of Yrtra, who lies drained
of his contents like an empty bag, “ contracted and emptied out.” 18
Indra is about to slay him, but he says “ Cast not, for thou art now
what I (was erst) ; only dissever me.” 20 Indra cuts him in two
(dvedhanvabhinat) , making the moon of that part of him in which
the soma inhered, and of the other, titanic part, the belly in all
creatures, whence men say that “Vrtra is within us.” 21
In PB. VII. 5. 20 it is Usanas Kavya, “who was the priest of
” Similarly in PB. XVIII. 9. 6, Heaven obtaining from Vrtra her lights
( naksatrdni ) and Earth her diversified phenomena (citrdni rdpdni ) .
Rupdmi in this connection we take to be “things in their kind,” the “works
of distinction and adornment”; cf. the pururupd vapurhsi of Earth in
RV. III. 55. 5, visvarupah pasuvah in VIII. 100. 11, sarvani rupdni in AB.
V. 23 in connection with Earth as the Serpent Queen, and JB. I. 160, cf.
TS. II. 4. 6, where the Earth is extra. The partition of Vrtra, of Purusa,
of Prajapati, is the act of creation involving the separation of Heaven
and Earth; for the corresponding division of “lights” and “species,”
viz. of image-bearing and omniform light and of exemplified phenomena,
see my “ Vedic Doctrine of Exemplarism,” to appear in the James Haughton
Woods Memorial Volume.
18 We have pointed out in The Darker Side of Damn that apad becomes
a kenning for “snake,” and the significance of apad as contrasted with
ekapad , padavi, etc.
That Vrtra is emptied out corresponds to the expression aricyata
employed in connection with Prajapati when he has poured out creatures,
*■*[• PB ' IV ’ 10 ' 1 praja as ri°-ta so ’ricyata-, and to Eckhart’s words,
. th * Wh ° le of what he kno "~ s < the whole of what he can afford,” that
is of course his finite and presentable aspect, his “face,” for it is but a
fourth of his being that “becomes” (abhavat, RV. X. 90. 3-4), “three
fourths remain within ” (trini paddni nihita guha AV II I 2)
“ lD the accounts ^Pears that the Dragon is wounded vitally
slmL t ""I:" th3n S,aiD ’ as hoId8 also for Prajapati, the
Sacrifice, who survives this passion” (tarn vd ayusartim atyajLt, PB.
Ananda K. Coomaraswamy
387
the Titans ” that is persuaded to come over to the side of the Angels,
who are thus supported by the spiritual power, 22 and this explains
the allusion “when Usanas reached you,” in BV. V. 31. 8. 23 In
JB. I. 125, Brhaspati (also son of Tvastr, BV. II. 23. 17) is the
priest of the Angels, Usanas Kavya of the Titans; the victory of
the Angels is assured when the latter is won over. In the version
of BP. VI. chs. 7-13, Vrtra behaves with great nobility, but accuses
Indra of Brahman-slaying, in that he killed his guru, Visvarupa,
here Vrtra’s brother. It requires 360 days for Indra to cut off
Vrtra’s head, that is evidently an aeonic “Year,” during which
Time is as it were gradually unrolled. This is in fact a repetition
of the TS. account, in which Visvarupa is a Brahman, and Indra
incurs the guilt of Brahman-slaying, which he bears for a “ Year,”
i. e. until the end of an aeon, until the “ Day of Judgment.”
The version of Tvastr’s sacrifice given in SB. II. 2. 4. 1-8 is of
** Food is the sine qua non of ex-istence in any mode, the anna-maya
being the support of all modality; hence in X. 90. 2 it is said of the
Purusa as Lord of Life that he “rises up by food,” food as in MU. VI. II
being the premier manifestation of the Spirit, “ by food the breath of
life is mode-ified ” (-may a).
That “ Vrtra is within us ” not only answers to the concept of a
digestive fire or combustion, but suggests an interesting parallel; for
it is by the “ stomach ” that we are prompted to take “ food ” ( as pointed
out in SB. 1. 6. 3. 17), and if the stomach be identified with the Dragon
or Serpent, then we may says that when the “ bird ” eats of the sweet
fruit of the fig (svadu pippalam atti, I. 164. 20) that “ the Serpent tempted
him ” — as in Genesis, “ The Serpent beguiled me, and I did eat ” — and
conversely it can be seen that fasting may be regarded, not as a moral
exercise, but as a metaphysical rite, in imitation of that other “ bird ”
that “does not eat of the tree” but merely regards it (ab hi cakasiti, ib.).
The designation “ food ” has of course a very wide application, covering
all objects of desire, by the acquisition of which the individual functions
as such. The identification of Vrtra with the belly — the likeness of the
bowels to a snake is obvious — corresponds to the conception widespread
in antiquity, of the “ bowels ” as the seat of the emotions, i. e. of the
will, in distinction from the “ heart,” in which the operation of the
intellect takes place.
“ The “ persuasion ” here, which persuasion is often a bribing, corre-
sponds to the “ con-version ” accomplished elsewhere by more violent
means; in RV. I. 148. 1 for example, it is Agni whom MatariSvan “grasps
and grinds” (mathid yad im vistah) to be the “multiform priest of all
the Angels ( hotdram viivdpsum visvadevyam, where visvapsum = vaisva-
raupyam) . Cf. Agni as “Titan priest” in VII. 30. 3, the Sun as “Titan
Priest of the Angels ” in VTII. 101. 12.
388 Angel and Titan: An Essay in Vedic Ontology
particular interest and throws a clarifying light upon its signifi-
cance as a creative act. Here the name of Prajapati replaces that
of Tvastr ; i. e. the concept of creation by generation replaces that
of creation per artem. Prajapati is single in the beginning, he
desires to be propagated ; he breathes forth Agni, the sacrificial fire,
as indeed might be expected of him who is really the Dragon. The
Earth (prthivi = urvara, hairless similarly in RY. VIII. 91. 5-6)
is “ bald,” without vegetation. The Fire is a devourer. Prajapati
is afraid: therefore his Allmight ( mahima ), his Word (vac),
departs ( apacakrama ) ; in other words, the diremption of the First
Principle, the division of Essence and Nature, Heaven and Earth,
that had been conjunct ( pariksita , samokasa, etc. in RY.) now
takes place (as in BU. I. 4. 3, ef. 17, atmanaih dvedhapatayat, JUB.
I. 54, te vyadravatam, RY. X. 27. 23 krntatrad esam, etc.). Praja-
pati “ seeks to make an offering in himself ” ( dtmann eva ahutim
ise ) ; he “ rubs up ” ( udamrsta , cf. RV. X. 167. 4, stomam .. .tin
mrje, “ I stirred up the hymn ”) and he rubbed his hands together
so hard, that even now the palms are hairless. What he thus
obtains ( viveda , “found”) is an offering of “milk” ( payas ),
evidently the equivalent of soma in the TS. versions cited above.
That “milk” he casts into the fire, and thence arise the plants.
He rubs again, and obtains a second flow. He is in doubt whether
or not to make an offering of this other milk (which corresponds
to the “ remnant of the soma ” in the TS. versions) . His own
Allmight speaks out ( svo mahimabhyuvada) , “Make thou the
offering” ( juhudhi ). Again he casts the “milk” into the Fire;
“and thereupon the Sun rose ( udiyaya ), the Gale sprang up (pra
babhuva). the Fire was averted” (agnih paran paryavartata, the
Fire that is thus “ turned back away ” being of course the “ devour-
ing Fire ” against whom so many apotropaic incantations are
employed in the Samhitas and Brahmanas). Thus Prajapati
“ propagates himself, he bears himself across from the Fire, from
Death” (prajapatih . . . agnir mrtyor atmanam atrayata), note
the parallel in RY. X. 53. 8 (atra jahama ye asann asevdh sivan-
vayam uttarema, where atra = paran in SB. cited above). Finally,
this Resurrection of the Dying God (cf. PB. XXV. 17. 2-3, where
Prajapati when he is “ stupified by eld,” jirya miirah, by the per-
formance the sacrifice once more comes into act as the quickening
principle of all things, sarva-sya prasavam agacchat) is for him who
understands the promise of a like regeneration, “ for when he dies,'
Ananda K. Coomaraswamy
389
and when they lay him in the fire, then is he bom (again) of the
fire ( agner adhijayate), the fire consumes his body only” (SB.
loc. cit. 8) all of which is in full agreement with the assumptions
of the Funeral Hymns in BY., nor could any doctrine be more
explicit.
Certain conspicuous common traits are to be remarked in
Visvarupa and Agni, Surya, and other aspects of the primary pro-
ceeding power. In BY. I. 146. 1 Agni ab intra ( pitror upas the)
is like Visvarupa triple-headed and seven-rayed; in II. 5. 2 Agni,
and in VIII. 72. 16 the Sun are similarly seven-rayed; and “ where
those seven rays are, thither goeth back mine affinity ( nabhi , navel),
Trita Aptya knoweth that, who converseth with my kin,” I. 105. 9,
cf. X. 64. 13. In III. 38. 4 it is as the Sun that Visvarupa mani-
fests himself, “When he (the Sun) upstood, all things him
adorned, who moves self-luminous; that is the Bull’s, the Titan’s
mighty figure, it is the Omniform who takes his stand upon his
aeviternities ” ( mahat tad vrsno asurasya nama, a visvarupo
amrtdni tasthau, ef. IX. 75. 2). In YS. Y. 35, Agni is addressed
as the “ omniform light ” ( jyotir asi visvarupam).
5. The Boar, Varaha, Emusa
The Boar, in Pauranic mythology an avatara of Visnu, who lifts
up Barth from the Waters in the beginning, is in BV. a hostile
power who withholds the means of life from Angels and men, and
is identified with Visvarupa (X. 99. 6) and with Vrtra (I. 61. 6-8,
and I. 121. 11, cf. I. 32 where Vrtra is also Vvamsa and the
“first-born of serpents,” prathamaja m ahinam, IV. 1. 11 where
Agni jayata prathamah . . . budhne . . . apad aslrsa guhamd.no anta,
i. e. is Ahi Budhnya, and X. 90. 7 purusam jatam agratah).
In two of the BV. texts Visnu is associated with Indra in the
slaying of the boar; in the first, I. 61. 7, where the theft at the
soma-feast is mentioned, visnu may be adjectival, qualifying Indra,
in the second, VIII. 77. 10, it is explicitly Visnu that “brings
back the bacon.” In general, the exploit is typically Indra’s,
though to Visnu’s advantage as in TS. II. 4. 12 cited above. In
BV. I. 121. 11, for example, we find “Thou great one (Indra)
didst with thy bolt put to sleep the Boar, the Dragon (vrtram . . ,
varahum) as he lay ( asayamanam ) in the water-channels.” In
TS. VI. 2. 4. 2-3 the boar Emusa. is said to have in keeping the
2
390 Angel and Titan: An Essay in Vedic Ontology
wealth of the Titans, beyond the seven mountains, that would be,
apart from the seven worlds, and in accordance with the asurya
possession of all things in the beginning; Indra, urged by Visnu,
pierces the mountains (cf. EV. VIII. 77. 6 and 96. 2) and both
come into possession of the food and wealth, i. e. as in EV. VII.
5. 3 the Titans are made to relinquish their “delights” ( bhoja -
nani). In TS. VII. 1. 5. 1 the Boar, who now raises the Earth
from the Waters, is identified with Prajapati; Prajapati, who is
the Sacrifice, also with Death and with the Year in SB. X. 4. 3. 1-3.
That will no longer surprise us; nor can we wonder at the dual
part played by the Boar or Visnu, all such apparent contradictions
being inevitable consequences of the opposing operations ( vivrata ,
X. 23. 1, virupa Tcrtani, III. 38. 9, etc.) and double seeming ( virupa ,
visurupa, passim) of the deity who moves in opposite directions
( dvivartani , X. 61. 20, etc.), stands at the parting of the ways
( panthdm visarge . . . tasthau, X. 5. 6 = VS. XII. 66 tasthau
samare pathinam), and changes his fashion as he will ( yathavasam
= anu vrata), from sterility to productivity (VII. 101. 3 as in SB.
XII. 7.2. 17).
6. Ahi-Vrtra
We have already outlined certain versions of the story of Vrtra;
and there can be no doubt from EV. I. 32 and other texts of the
identity of the Dragon, Vrtra, with Ahi, 24 the Serpent. Decapita-
a * Ahi corresponds to Avestan Azhi, known also as Vishapa, “ of poison-
ous slaver,” and also to Sumerian MusshuSsu, the seven-headed dragon
slain by Ninurta, later Tiamat bisected by Marduk, who makes Heaven
of one of the parts ; “ it would be remarkable if this entire Indian and
Iranian legend was not ultimately Sumerian ” (Langdon, Semitic Mythology,
p. 130, and fig. 57, which might well be described as a picture of Indra
with his vajra, slaying Ahi-Vrtra). The like considerations are put for-
ward by Frankfort in “ Gods and Myths in Sargonid Seals,” Iraq, I, 1934,
p. 19 in connection with his PI. Ill, fig. h, cf. PI. I, fig. a in the same
journal, of which figures the same may be said as of Langdon’s. It is
also pointed out by Frankfort that the Sumerian seals are archetypal
for the slaying of the many -headed Hydra by Herakles; it may be added
that Zeus is represented in Greek mythology both as snake and bull, and
that the conflict of Herakles with the Hydra is really that of son with
father, cf. Harrison, Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion, p. 495.
There can be no possible doubt of the correspondance of Vedic ahi, sarpa,
and prdaku with later naga; this is not only apparent on ontological
grounds (characteristic power of ndgas to appear either as “ snakes ” or
Ananda K. Coomaraswamy
391
tion is indicated in I. 52. 10 “ severed his head ” ( abhinac chirah,
cf. II. 11. 2 ava abhinat, II. 20. 6 ava . . . siro bharad dasasya,
VIII. 6. 6 siro bibheda), and recalling the equivalence of siras and
sanu (denoting the “head” of the Mahavira vessel respectively in
SB. XIV. 1. 2. 17 and Ap. Sr. S. XV. 2. 14), the same is apparent
in I. 32. 7, where a blow on the nape of the neck may be understood,
and this is followed by a further dismemberment. In the texts to
as “men” at will, association of nagas with Varuna, and the West, and
waters generally, and the manner in which the nagas, often seven-headed,
are represented in iconography), but also in the significant designation
ahi-ndga applied to the Serpent overcome by the Buddha in the fire
temple, in Mahavagga I. 15. 7 (P. T. S. Vinaya Pitaka, 1. 25).
As regards Varuna, the assimilation to Ahi-Vrtra is developed in the
following section. If he is not explicitly called a snake in RV. the later
texts and iconography are unanimous in recognizing that such is his real
nature. Varuna is an adder ( prdaku ) in AV. XII. 3. 57, like the rivers
ah intra, prdakvah, ib. I. 27. 1 ; ib. X. 4. 17, Indra overcomes both the
male and female adders, i. e. purifies them as he does Apala in RV. VIII.
91. Apotropaic texts respecting Varuna abound, e. g. RV. X. 97. 16, where
Varuna is assimilated to Yama, and SB. XII. 7. 2. 17, where Varuna is
“evil” ( papman ), the purpose of the offering being to convert him into
Savitr in accordance with RV. VTI. 101. 3. The three last cited texts are
inseparably connected. Ocean, Varuna’s express domain, is “ abode of nagas ”
(naganam alayam, Mbh. I. 21. 6 and 25. 4), and nagas are represented
amongst the angels of the western quarter at Barhut (JRAS. 1928, p. 392).
Varuna and Sagara are nagarajas in the Mahavyutpatti ; Varuna-pancami
replaces the more usual expression Naga-pancami in the Nilamata Purana;
in Nepal, a seven-hooded Varuna may occupy the centre of a nagamandala
In Buddhist cosmology Virupaksa, who as Regent of the West corresponds
to Varuna, is again a nagaraja. It should be noted that virupa cannot
originally have meant “deformed,” for which we have duskrta in quite
other connections; virupa in RV. always implies a duality of aspect, i. e.
an alternation of aspect in what is essentially the same or consubstantial,
e. g. I. 95. 1, I. 122. 2, V. 1. 4, where Night and Dawn are virupa, “ of unlike
aspect,” VII. 103 where the Brahman frogs are similarly designated, and
X. 95. 16 where Urvasi dwells amongst mortals “ in another aspect,”
virupa. Virupaksa should therefore mean “ having unlike eyes,” which is
appropriate for Varuna, whose “ eyes ” are the Sun and Moon.
The Buddha legend preserves a double version of Indra’s (occasionally
Agni’s or Brhaspati’s) battle with Ahi-Vrtra, who is also Mrtyu, the
principle of Death: first, in the Mara Dharsana, where may be noted
Mara’s (= Mrtyu ’s) use of weapons characteristic for Ahi, who likewise
resorts to lightning, thunder, and rain of hail (RV. I. 32. 13), or for the
Dasa Namuci who “makes women his weapons” (RV. V. 30. 9), and also
that the Buddha is deserted by the timorous Angels, just as in Indra in
392 Angel and Titan: An Essay in Vedic Ontology
be cited, it is this subdivision of an originally simple recumbent
and sleeping principle that should be especially remarked. In TV.
19. 3 “Thou (Indra) didst dismember ( vi rna) him, the impartite
( aparvan ) Serpent ( ahim = vrtram in verse 1), him the insatiate,
who was unawakened ( abudhyam ), dormant ( abudhyamanam ) ,
fast asleep ( susupanam ), outstretched ( viyatam ) lying ( asaydnam )
against the seven scarps ” ( sapta prati pravatah, cf. varaham tiro
adrirn in I. 67. 7, saptanam girinam in TS. VI. 2. 4. 3). In II.
11. 5 “Thou, Champion (Indra), hast smitten in thy manly
might ( viryena ) the Serpent ( ahim >== vrtram in verse 9), the
Magician, as he lurked obscured and hidden away in secret in the
Waters (guha hitam guhyam gulliam apsv apivrtam mayinam
Icsiyantam), him that held down the Waters and the Light of
RV. passim, e.g. IV. 18. 11, VIII. 93. 14-15, VIII. 96. 7 (“shrinking from
the snort of Vrtra, all the Angels, thy companions, left thee in the lurch ”),
and in AB. III. 20 and IV. 5; second, in the Conversion of the Jatilas
(who are also Kasyapas, “Tortoises,” cf. RV. IX. 114. 2 and AV. passim
where KaSyapa is an, or the, Prajapati, see MV. pp. 151, 153), on which
occasion the Buddha spends the night in a fire-temple, the resort of the
Naga Ahi ( ahinagam in Mahavagga, I. 15. 17), and overcomes him, fighting
fire with fire (tejasa tejam ). In Jaina tradition the story survives in the
episode of Mahavira’s (a name significant of Indra in the Vedic formula-
tions, e.g. I. 32. 6) conflict with an unnamed adversary who appears in
the form of a serpent (Hemacandra, Trisastisalakapurusacaritra, parva 10,
see MFA. Bulletin No. 197, 1935, pp. 38, 39 with fig. 3 on p. 37) ;
the serpent here, however, is elsewhere called Samgana, i. e. Yama (for
fuller discussion see my “The Conqueror’s Life in Jaina Painting,” to
appear immediately in Joum. Ind. Soc. Or. Art. The name of Jina,
" Conqueror,” applied to Mah&vira, no less than that of TIrthamkara,
is redolent of Vedic phraseology. There is in fact in the Indian tradition
no aspect of the proceeding power that is not of necessity engaged in a
mortal conflict with Death, in the beginning.
Finally, the whole problem of the Aryan or non-Aryan character of
nSgas has been somewhat incorrectly stated, cf. Vogel, Indian Serpent
Lore, pp. 32, 191, 225, 226. The serpents themselves are non-Aryan by
definition, only becoming Aryans by “qualification” ( arhana ) and by
“creeping farther” ( atisarpana , whence the imitation of this motion in the
sacrificial ritual) ; on the other hand, the doctrine about serpents is just
as much an integral and indispensable part of the Vedic Aryan as it is of
any non- Aryan, e. g. the Sumerian tradition. The tremendous emphasis
laid on the dragon-slaying motif in all traditions can be readily under-
stood when we realize that the dismemberment of the ophidian power is
precisely the act of creation.
Ananda E. Coomaraswamy
393
Heaven ” ( apo dyam tastambhvansam, zs where as in so many other
texts, dyu is tantamount to “ Sun”). The sequence is explicit in
II. 19. 2-3, where “ This mighty Indra, hewing apart the Serpent
that withheld the flood ( arno vrtam ), 2a propelled the flood of
waters to the sea (of life), brought about the Sun’s nativity
( ajanayat suryam ), found the cattle, by means of night fulfilled
the work of days,” cf. I. 61. 10. Similarly II. 11. 18, “Thou
clavest the spidery Vrtra, son of Danu 27 ( vrtram danurn aurnava-
bham, Vrtra being similarly Danava in EY. I. 32. 9 and SB. I. 6.
3. 9), unveiled the Light for the Aryan-ilk (apa avrnor jyotir
35 Root stabh is employed here not in the favorable sense of “ support ”
but as in RV. VI. 44. 22, where Soma “ ping down the miser ” (panim
asthabhdyat) .
38 Vrtam, from root vr, to “ invest,” etc., and certainly with an implied
vrtram, as is explicit in I. 52. 2 and VIII. 12. 26, vrtram nadVvrtam, “ the
Dragon that invests the rivers and will not let them go.” In this connec-
tion, and without taking up at length the Qabbalistic exegesis of Genesis,
and the correspondence of Pharaoh, Moses, Egyptians, and Israelites
respectively to Vrtra-Namuci, Indra, Asuras, and Aryans, may be remarked
the notable text Ezekiel, XXIX. 3, “ Behold, I am against thee, Pharaoh,
king of Egypt, the great Dragon ( tanim. — Babylonian tiamat ) that lieth
in the midst of his rivers, which hath said: My river is my own, and I
have made it for myself.”
37 The names are confusing. In SB. loc. cit., Danu and Danayu or
Danavl receive the stricken Vrtra “ as his mother and father.” Danu does
not occur in RV. Danu in II. 11. 18 is evidently patronymic or matronymic,
presumably the latter, in which case either Danu or Danu could be assumed
for the mother’s name. In I. 32. 9 Danu with vrtraputrd must be the
mother ; that when Indra sinks them both, “ Mother above and son below,
there Danu lay, like cow with calf” (sahavatsa na dhenuh) , and that
danu is also “ fluid,” “ moisture ” or “ mist ” are perfectly consonant, for
the floods are said to flow over Vrtra’s stricken body. “ Cow with calf ”
suggest Aditi-Vae and Agni (cf. I. 164. 17), here, of course, that Agni
who takes refuge in the Waters (X. 51. 1 etc.); Danu is in fact the
consort of the Adityas Mitravaruna (ddnunas pati in I. 136. 3 and II. 41.
6) or of the Aivins (ddnunas pati in VIII. 8. 16), Ahi is bora of the
Waters (abjd in VII. 34. 16), fiusna son of the mist (miho napat, V. 32.
4), Agni son of the Waters, passim, the “glittering ( danvcitrdh ) Waters”
of V. 31. 6, the “ Waters whose wealth ” ( radhasd danuh) flows for Indra in
I. 54. 7. Danu and Danava discussed above are etymologically distinct
from danu and danava derived from da to “ give ” and meaning generous.
Such complexities can only be understood in the light of the doctrine of
dual operation ( vivrata ) which is so evidently assumed throughout RV.,
as it is also in every other body of traditional teaching.
394 Angel and Titan: An Essay in Vedic Ontology
aryaya), sank the Dasyu”; 28 the following verse implying an
identification of Visvarupa with Vrtra, elsewhere his brother. The
fullest and perhaps most interesting account occurs in KV. I. 32 ;
here Indra dissevers Vyamsa, “the most Vrtra, firstborn of the
Serpents, as a tree is cut up into logs, so that he lies emasculate
( vrsno vadhrih), 29 divided into many parts ” (purutrd . . . vyastah).
28 Arya and Dasa or Dasyu in RV. are synonymous with Deva and
Manusya or Nary a, and Asura respectively, the Aryans being those who
cross the Waters and settle round the Light, a proposition discussed in
my Eg Veda as Land-Ndma-Bok. It is only by analogy that such terms
have been applied to human societies; incidentally, the inconsequence of a
racial discrimination based on the supposed existence of an ethnic Aryan
type becomes apparent when we reflect that we are all Aryans by father-
right and non-Aryans on the mother-side, for the feminine principle is
always an Asuri in RV., we are children of day and night, of fire and
water, our very existence derives from an exogamy and miscegenation, who
inherit accordingly a bilateral symmetry, cf. the correlation of the right
and left eyes with Indra and Indram in SB. X. 5. 2 and Upanisads; Eve,
“the mother of all living,” is drawn from Adam’s side, cf. Parsu, the
“Rib,” daughter of Manu (X. 86. 23), who is the mother of the children
of men (SB. I. 8. 1. 8-11); while in the Shah Namah, which Professor
F. W. Buckler called “an epic of the genealogy of the kingdom of God
on earth,” the mother is always Turanian, and many an Indian dynasty
traces its ancestry to a Nagini; and in the Edda, the consorts of the
Aesir are always of Wane or giant origin.
“ Emasculate,” in line with the descriptions elsewhere of the deity
ab intra as blind, halt, and ineffectual, and the designation of the feminine
principle ab intra as Vadhrimatl: “Now is he sterile, now progenitive, he
shapes his fashion as he will ” ( starir u tvad bhavati suta u tvad, yathd-
vasaih tanvaih cakra esah, RV. VII. 101. 3), corresponding on the one hand
to AV. VI. 72. 1, “As by his titan magic the black (snake) extends him-
self, assuming forms (i. e. those of ‘serpent’ or those of ‘man’) at will”
( yath'lsit ah prathayate vasan anu vapumsi krnvann asurasya Ttidyayd ) ,
—asita, the “black” (snake, skin, or garment) referring to the ab intra
aspect of Agni or the Sun, as in AV. XII. 3. 55 and TS. III. 2. 2. 2, —
and on the other to RV. X. 168. 4 where “ the Spirit of the Angels moves
at will, so let us come unto this Gale with offering” (atmd devanam . . .
yatha-vasam carati . . . tasmai vataya havisd vidhema) . The doctrine of
the impotence of the Godhead ” is common to Vedic tradition and
Christian exegesis (typically in Eckhart), but requires a longer and fuller
discussion than can be undertaken here.
The assimilation of Vrtra’s fall to the felling and cutting up of a tree
(cf. X. 89. 7) is itself significant in connection with the question asked
in brahmodya. X. 31. 7 = X. 81. 4, “What was the wood, what the tree
out of which they fashioned Heaven and Earth? ”, and with the customary
designation of Agni and Soma as vanaspati.
Ananda E. Coomaraswamy
395
In I. 61. 10 Indra cuts to pieces the scorching Vrtra ( susantam
being tantamount to an identification with Susna, “ Drought,” as
also in VIII. 6. 14-15); in VIII. 6. 13 “rends him joint from
joint, and drives the Waters to the Sea,” in I. 130. 4 “ using his
bolt (on Ahi) like a carving knife,” while in VIII. 7. 23 it is
Indra’s allies the Maruts that “tear him joint from joint” (in
vrtram parvaso yayuh). It remains to note the conspicuous corre-
spondences and contrasts. The consubstantiality of Agni with Ahi
Budhnya is generally admitted (VM. p. 73) ; in I. 79. 1, Agni is a
“ raging serpent ” ( ahir dhunir, dhuni occurring also as the name
of a Titan in VII. 19. 4 and X. 113. 9) ; AB. III. 36 employing a
strictly technical terminology explains that Ahi Budhnya is invisi-
bly ( paroTcsena ) what Agni Garhapatya is visibly (pratyaksa ) , and
VS. V. 33, where Ahi Budhnya and Aja Ekapad, 30 the Sun, are
identified and the epithet “Waylord” ( adhvapati ) distinctive of
Agni is used in the invocation. The language of II. 11. 5 cited
above corresponds to terms that are characteristic for the hidden
Sun, e. g. V. 40. 6 f. where when the Sun has been smitten with
s0 For the Sun as Ekapad, “ One footed,” see Dumont in JAOS. 53. 326 ff.
The Sun is originally footless, Varuna gives him feet that he may proceed,
RV. I. 24. 8; thus Varuna himself as Sun “with his bright foot ascends
the vault of heaven ( arcina pads, nalcam Sruhat, VIII. 41. 8. The Sun’s
feet are his rays; his one foot that is alternately dark and bright (Hbh.
XII. 362. 7-8) is coincident with the axis of the universe ( skambhena vi
rodasi ajo na dyam adharayat, VIII. 41. 10) ; that it is alternately dark
and bright {asita, sucina, Mbh. XII. 362. 7-8) corresponds to RV. V. 62. 8
where the pillar that Varuna and Mitra mount is golden at dawn and
bronze at sunset, what they see from above when the pillar is golden
being the finite (ditim), and what they see when it is brazen is the
infinite ( a ditim ) . The Sun has also, of course, a “ thousand feet ”
( sahasrapsdam , in VIII. 69. 16), i. e. indefinitely numerous rays, every
one of which is from the standpoint of the corresponding individual the
Sun’s “one foot,” and at the same time the pillar ( skambha — stauros)
or bridge (setu = cinvad, bifost, etc.) that at once connects and divides
Heaven from Earth, the light from the darkness.
A further allusion to the Sun as ekapad occurs in VS. XXIII. 50, ekena
angena paryemi. The conception must at one time have been visually
represented; for it has survived in folk art to the present day, see the
two representations of the “ Mansion of the Sun,” reproduced from alpona
drawings, in A. N. Tagore, Bdnglar Vrata, Calcutta, n. d., PI. 99, where
moreover the Sun’s “one foot” is supported by a boat or swing (nau and
prehkha in RV. VII. 88. 3, cf. VI. 58. 3, golden prenkha in VII. 87. 5,
naunagara in JB. I. 125).
396 Angel and Titan: An Essay in Vedic Ontology
darkness by the titanic Svarbhanu, Atri “ finds him, hidden by the
darkness and inoperative ” ( gulham suryam tamasa apavratena
. . . avindat, where apavrata = avrata, “ idle/’ a pejorative designa-
tion often applied to the non-Aryan aspect, and denoting the divine
“ idleness,” here in other words denoting that the Sun does not
shine, but is overcast, apivrtam, as in II. 11. 5) ; cf. I. 117. 4-5,
where Eebha in need of aid is assimilated to the “hidden horse
(asvarh na gulham) . . . sleeping in Destruction’s womb (susup-
vahsam na nirrter upasthe, cf. I. 164. 32), the Sun abiding in the
Darkness ” ( suryam na tamasi ksiyantam , cf. tamasi ksesi addressed
to Agni, whose procession is delayed, in X. 51. 5, and kseti budhnah
applied to Agni as “ remaining in his ground ” even while he goes
forth, in III. 55. 7). 31
The designation aurimvabha, patronymic or simply adjectival
form of Urnavabha, “ thread-spinner,” i. e. “ Spider,” is of no
little interest. In EV. VIII. 77. 1-2 “the stark and far-famed
Aurnavabha and Ahlsuva ” are destined to be overthrown by Indra,
as befalls in VIII. 32. 26, where aurnavabham qualifies vrtram as
in II. 11. 18. In the Brahmarias, tfrnayu is a Gandharva. In EV.
VI. 15. 16 the altar, Agni’s birthplace, is “an anointed, downy
nest ” (urnavanlam yonihi kulayinam ghrtavantam, where urna-
vantam may be regarded as synonymous with aurnavabham, and
there is also an allusion to the pubescent vulva, cf. Apala’s prayer
in VIII. 91. 5 fulfilled in Eomasa in I. 126. 7). 32 In the same way
11 All the associations of Agni with the word budhna in RV. imply his
budhnya, chthonic character; his terrestrial origin in the worlds being
always analogous to this origination in the ground of the divine being.
Further evidence of the consubstantiality of Agni with the Serpent ab
intra may be cited in the identification of Mitra with the Titan Vamacitra
or Vipracitti, the eldest son of Danu and father of Rahu or Namuci, as
worked out by Przyluski, “ Un Dieu Iranien dans I’ lnde, ” in Rocznik
Orjentalisttyzny, VII.
In Apuleius, Psyche s husband, otherwise assimilable to the Indian
Pururavas, is described in what purports to be a Miletian oracle as “no
wight of humane seed, but Serpent dire and fierce as might be thought,
who flies with wings ... the rivers blacke and deadly floudes of paine,
and darkness eke, as thrall to him remaine ” (Adlington’s version, 1639).
“The same is implied in V. 5. 4 where the barhis or “strew” is
addressed as “soft as down” (urnamradah) , followed in the next verse by
“Open yourselves, ye doors angelic, apt for advent” ( devir dvdro vi
irayadhvam suprayanah), an almost literal parallel to X. 18. 10-11 invok-
ing “ girlish Mother Earth to be as soft as down to him of the Guerdon ”
Ananda K. Coomaraswamy
397
I. 105. 9, "Where are those seven rays spun forth (atatdh), there
is my navel ” ( nabhih , i. e. Agni’s chthonic navel, nabhih prthivyah,
and the navel of aeviternity, amrtasya nabhih, passim). The latter
passage is to be borne in mind in connection with the word
urnandbhi, the regular designation of the Spider in the Brahmanas
and Upanisads : e. g. BU. II. 1. 20, where all things are said to
proceed from their source “ as a spider might ascend by means of
(daksinavate, Daksina being the Dawn as in I. 123. 1 and X. 107, mother
of Agni as in III. 58. 1, likewise IndranI as in II. 11. 21, and the Serpent
Queen), followed by “Be opened up (uc chvancasva) , O Earth, hinder him
not (ma ni badhathah), be apt for advent (supayana), wrap him in
down (abhi . . . Urnuhi, from root v r, as in urna) as a mother wraps her
skirt about her son,” by which we understand indue him in the robe of
light (nirnijam, drdpiih hiranyam, etc.) that he puts on when he appears
in the worlds ; “ Be opened up ” implying, not “ Open to receive,” but
“ Open to give out.” It would take overlong to discuss here the proposi-
tion that the application of the funeral hymns must be clearly distin-
guished from, their wording, which has all to do with birth, and not with
burial. Not that the theme of resurrection is any but fitting matter for
a requiem; but rather and on the contrary, that the language of the
funeral hymns implies the thought Mors janua vitae. That in general the
yogi and samnyasi are not cremated, but thrown into water or simply
buried is in accord with strictest logic, inasmuch as these have not desired
a resurrection, but to be dead and buried in the Godhead.
To U rnamradah (barhis) cited above from RV. V. 5. 4 corresponds
exactly to SB. I. 3. 37 and BU. VI. 4. 3, lomdni barhis. It may be added
that there can be no doubt of the identity of the Urnavantam yonim
kuldyinam ghrtavantam savitre, Agni’s birthplace in RV. VI. 15. 16, cf.
AB. I. 28 savitre kuldyam . . . Urndstukdh, with the visvambhara
kulaya, “ all supporting nest ” in BU. I. 4. 7, rightly although not
literally rendered by Hume ( Thirteen Principal Upanishads, p. 82) as
“fire-holder,” i. e. fire-place or hearth. But this is not (as Hume sur-
mises) the best source for the Vedantic simile “ as fire is latent in fire-
wood or in covered embers”; this simile derives far more directly from
the familiar Vedic concept expressed in V. 11. 6 where the Angirases find
Agni “ lying hidden in every log ” (guhd hitam . . . sisriydnam vanevane,
cf. X. 91. 2 and many similar passages).
The “ Spider ” imagery is the obvious source of the well-known urnd,
the brow-spot or tuft that is a constant laksana of the Buddha as
Mahapurisa; which urna, especially in Japanese iconography, is often
represented not merely as a mole, but as the source of radiating lines of
light. That this urna is also in a certain sense an “ eye,” and is analogous
to the third eye of Siva, still more marks his solar kinship, who is called
the “eye in the world ( cakkhum loke), i. e. that “Eye,” the Sun, which
in RV. passim “surveys all things ” ( visvam abhi caste).
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Angel and Titan: An Essay in Vedic Ontology
its thread ( yathornanabhis tantunoecaret) , as sparks ascend from
fire,” and Mundaka Up, I. 7, “ Jnst as a spider emanates and with-
draws ( srjate ghrnate, lit. ‘pours out and dries up ’) , so all this
comes into being from him who does not flow forth” ( aksarat
sambhavati iha visvam). The Sun, as we have already seen, shines
forth with seven rays; or alternatively, it is the co-creators
( kavayah ) operating saerificially as mediate causes, who "spin
their seven threads to form the web ” ( sapta tantun vi tantire
kavaya otavai, I. 164. a); which “seven rays spun forth” ( sapta
rasmayas tatdh) are proper to the Inductor of the Sacrifice (Agni
or Sun) who as eighth Aditya “ impels all things ” ( visvam invati,
II. 5. 2) ; and these seven rays as we have seen are also Visvarupa’s.
A sacrificial gatha quoted in KB. XIX. 3 explicitly refers to the
Year, the Sun, as a spider. The “ Spider,” then, is Agni and/or
the Sun, regarded as a Titan while the rays are hidden in his belly,
as an Angel when he spins the web ; each thread of which, for one
that can pursue the clew, follow let us say the via analogia,
unravelling the tissue, provides a pathway leading in again towards
its source. Needless to say, the “ Spider ” image analysed above
involves the well-known doctrine of the sutratman, as can be
readily seen if we collate BY. X. 168. 4 where the Sun “is the
spiration of the Angels ” (atma devanam) with SB. VIII. 7. 3. 10
bonder Sun connects (samavayate) these worlds by a thread
{sutre), and what that thread is is the Gale ” ( vayuh ), cf. also BG.
VII. 7, All this universe is strung on me like rows of jewels on a
string ( protarn sutre manigana iva ) . It may be added that the
symbolism of the spider’s web of which the threads are rays of light
is but a special form of the more universal symbolism of spinning
and weaving that is so commonly employed in the Yedic and in
other forms of the universal tradition, cf. for example, Dante,
Paradiso, XXX. 49-51, “living light ... in such a web of its
refulgence” ( luce viva . . . di tal velo di suo fulgor).
In IY. 19. 3 cited above the terms abudhyam, susupanam, and
asayanam are to be noted. All have a common implication, a shade
of which can be recognized when we speak colloquially of the sun
aS J°“S. t0 ked” at night; for he similarly “couches” in the
mght of time. Abudhya is primarily “unawakened,” and sec-
on an y stupid,” a wellknown characteristic of giants in all folk-
lore, susupanam and asayanam , “sleepy and lying” correspond to
the equally characteristic notion of “brooding” (over treasure).
Ananda K. Coomaraswamy
399
It is significant that in I. 103. 7, Indra actually “ awakens the
inert Serpent with his bolt” ( sasantam vajrena abodhayo ’him);
for to be awake ( budh , jdgr) is specific for the Angels in EY.
passim, and above all for Agni, who is usariudh, “ awakened at
dawn,” awakening being the same as kindling, cf. Y. 1. 1, abodhy
agnih samidha . . . prati . . . usasam, and in IV. 23. 7-8 the
sequence “ He smites the Indra-less destructive fiend ” ( druharn
jighahsan dhvarasam anindram). . . . The radiant cosmic 33, laud
pierces the deaf ears of Life, awakening him ” ( rtasya sloko
badhira tatarda karna budhanah sucamdna ay oh) ; in the latter
passage Ayus is specifically Agni 3 * (Bloomfield in JAOS. XX.
180) and we recognize the concept of him as a “ deaf adder ”
ante principium. Alternatively, in I. 113. 4 it is Dawn that
awakens the several worlds, or all beings ( ajigar bhuvanani visva).
That Ahi is smitten and awakened is then the same as to say that
the chthonic Serpent is con-verted ( samvrt ) or extroverted ( pravrt ) ,
the Darkness literally up-turned ( udvrt ) into Light. Thus buddha,
“ awakened,” is also “ illuminate.” It is most interesting to observe
that the original concept of the awakened serpent is clearly pre-
served in Buddhist thought, viz. in the Commentator’s explanation
of budh as “ an uprising from the sleep of the kindred of the slime ”
( bujjhatl kilesa-santdna-niddaya utthahati, Atthasalini , 464, text
p. 217).
Asayanam, “ lying down,” is specific for the deity ab intra, and
contrasts with the act of procession, which is a being seated (sad),
a standing up ( sihd , generally with urdhvd, cf. Sayana’s sthitam
padartham jatam), and a motion (car, whence the pahca jana are
sometimes referred to as carsanayah). To lie and to sleep, to stand
up and to wake, are respectively coincident. From the karmakanda
point of the latter condition is of course superior, though the former
is logically prior; from the jh-dnakanda point of view, the reverse
holds good, the well-known Indian saying “ Better to stand than
33 Rtasya, “ cosmic,” inasmuch as Greek Kosmos is precisely “ Order.”
34 The designation Ayu is here applied to Agni ab intra; the Gandharva
Urnayu within is Yisvayu without : for the raison d’etre of urna- here, see
the discussion of the “ Spider ” symbolism, above, and for that of -ayu,
“Life” cf. John, I. 3-4 “All things that have been made were Life ( vita
— ayus) in Him,” and Col. I. 16, “In him (the Son) were created all
things,” cf. AV. XII. 3. 47 “a filial ( kaumara ) world hath been born,
a son.”
400 Angel and Titan: An Essay in Vedic Ontology
walk, better to sit than stand, better to lie than sit ” providing a
good example of what is known as “inverse thinking” or “pro-
cedure upstream.”
The divine procession involves an apparent partition ; krama is
dvitva (TP. XXI. 16). In the Vedic dragon-slaying texts, others
as well as those cited above, nothing is more conspicuous than the
emphasis laid on the scission or subdivision of the originally im-
partite (aparvan) ophidian principle. It is precisely in the same
way, except that the strictly speaking mental character of the act
is also indicated, that EV. describes the subdivision of That One
(tad ekam, X. 129. 2) Integral Multiplicity ( visvam ekam, III.
54. 8 — and a characteristic formula in Plotinus), the unity of the
Person and the Word ( purusa , vac), which division is effected by
the First Sacrifice. “It is by their wordings that the vibrant
co-creators ( viprah kavayah) conceive him to be manifold who
abideth One ” (vacobhir ekam santam bahudha, kalpayanti, X.
114. 5), “ calling him manifold who is but One ” ( ekam sad vipra
bahudha vadanty agnim . . . , I. 164.46), cf. Makha, whom “so
long as he was one, the many did not overcome (ekam santam
bahuvo nabhyadhrsnuvan, TA. V. 1. 3). Similarly as regards the
feminine aspect : “ By the sacrifice they followed up the footprint
(padaviyam = vestigium pedi) of the Word, found her harboring
in the Prophets, brought her forth, departed her distributively
(vy adadhuh purutra, ), the Seven Singers uttered her in concert
everywhere (X. 71. 3), who says also of herself, “ The Angels have
departed me distributively ” (rad deva, vy adadhuh purutra , 35 X-
125.3).
It is equally significant that no essential value would be really
changed in the Purusasukta by a substitution of “Vrtra” for
Purusa : here, X. 90. 11-14, the question is asked in brahmodya
fashion, When they divided up (vy adadhuh) the Person, how-
many-fold did they think him out to be? ” (katidha vy akalpayan) ,
Vy adadhuh amounts to " contracted and identified into variety.” The
use of vad, kip (as also in samkalpa, “notion,” e. g. Kena Up. 29-30,
where the notion formed of deity is contrasted with the blinding vision
of the deity as he is in himself) must be understood in connection with
toe whole Vedic doctrine of creation by designation, namadheya) , see my
Vedic Exemplarism ’ to appear in the James Eaughton Woods Memorial
Volume, and Scharbau, Der Idee der Schopfung in der vedischen Literatur,
pp. 123-132.
Ananda K. Coomaraswamy
401
the answer following ending with the words “ Thus they designed
the worlds” ( lokan akalpayan) ; a further correspondence being
patent in verse 14, “ from his head was Heaven adverted ( sirsno
dyauh sam avartata), from his feet the Earth,” 36 whence however
it is clear that the Purusa has already assumed a human aspect,
ante principium, or rather does so in principio ; “ he shines upon
the world as Person” ( purusarupem , AA. II. 2. 1), for the
Brahman-Yaksa “ chooses the Person for procession ” ( purusam
prapapadanaye, JUB. IV. 23-24), the Sacrifice is the Eternal Man,
our Sire ( yajno manuh . . . nah pita, X. 100. 5), that is Agni
(“ Be Manu thou, beget the angelic kindred,” manur bhava janayd
daivyam janam, X. 53. 6), and the Year (AB. II. 17, SB. X. 4. 3.
1-3, etc.). The Sacrifice is an eternal purusa-medha.
The expression "footless and handless” ( apad ahastah) — a ser-
pent kenning — applied in I. 32. 7 to Ahi-Vrtra, in III. 30. 8 to
Kunaru and Vrtra, 37 represents the converse of what is applicable
to the manifested Sun, Sun, Surya or Savitr, respectively “ single-
footed” and "golden-handed” ( ekapad , hiranyahastah, passim)
and the manifested Agni, “footed” or who is preeminently
“footed ( padavih ) waywise leader” ( vidvan pathah puraeta, V.
46.1), “the herdsman never-falling as he goes about his ways”
( gopam anipadyamanam . . . pathibhis carantam, I. 164. 31), but
“footless and headless, hiding both his ends ( apad asxrsd guhamano
antd, cf. X. 79. 2, guha siro nihitam rdhag ah, si) when first born in
the ground of space ( budhne rajasah, i. e. born as Ahi Budhnya),
in his matrix, in the Bull’s nest ” ( asya yonau . . . vrsabhasya nile,
IV. 1.11), i. e. ante principium, immediately antecedent to his
kindling.
** As in the Edda, Grimnismal, 40, “ From Ymir’s flesh the Earth was
shapen . . . and Heaven from his skull” {6r hausi himinn). The account
of the Titan Ymir’s prior being found in Toluspa, 3, Ar vas alia pars ymir
hygpi . . . jorp fannsk deva n4 upphiminn, gap vas ginnunga, en gras
hvergi, corresponds exactly to RV. I. 129. 1 and 3. Similarly in the
Babylonian legend, Marduk bisects Ticlmat, the dragon-mother of the gods,
and makes Heaven of her upper part, etc.
* 7 In SB. I. 7. 1. 1 the soma-guardian (i. e. the Gandharva, whose consort
Indra so often beguiles, e. g. in JB. I. 125, see Bloomfield in JAOS. XXVIII.
80 ff.) is similarly a “footless archer” (o pad asta) ; the Gandharva, in
other words, is the dragon or serpent guardian of the Tree of Life, as in
all other mythologies.
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Angel and Titan: An Essay in Vedic Ontology
7. Procession is a sunwise turn
In connection with the use of vrt, it is to be observed that the
“ turn about ” is always right handed, the powers of darkness being,
as in other traditions, those of the left, the powers of light those
of the right. The smitten Dasyu “sinks on Indra’s left” (RV.
II. 11. 18), “ Indr a with his left hand constrains the giants
( vradhatah , as in X. 49. 8, X. 69. 10), with his right lays hold
upon his deeds” ( daksine sam grbhitd krtani). As Daksa is vir-
tually the right hand of God, so Daksina is “ right lady,” viz. in
RV. primarily the Dawn, the milch-cow, and mother of Agni
(I. 123. 1, III. 58. 1) and in TS. VI. 1. 3. 6 similarly of Indra,
and it may be easily seen how the secondary meaning of daksina,
“sacrificial fee” is derived; for the First Sacrifice is always a
sattra performed by the officiants on their own behalf, and wealthy
Dawn with her abundant kine is their reward. On the other hand
when the feminine principle is considered with respect to her origin,
just as Heaven is “ above ” and Earth “ below,” so “ he ” is
right and “ she ” left, as in SB. X. 5. 2. 9, BH. IV. 2. 2-3, and
MU. VII. 11, where the “ person ” in the right eye is Indra, the
“ person ” in the left Indran! or Viraj, their conjunction taking
place in the “heart,” or ritually, within the veiled sadas. The
sacrificer himself moves sunwise, “ He makes a right turn ( prasa -
lavyavartayati) , thereby he turns yonder Sun to the right, and
accordingly yonder Sun moves round these worlds from left to
right” (SB. VII. 5. 1. 37) ; in the same way the hempen girdle is
twisted sunwise, which is the “ human ” way, “ and were it twisted
widdershins, it would be sacred to the Fathers ” (ib. III. 2. 1. 13,
cf. also I. 2. 1. 12 with Eggeling’s note).
The notion of a single principle that faces in two opposite direc-
tions, that namely of the Janus type in iconography, is thus ex-
tensively developed in RV., e. g. X. 5. 6, where Agni is stationed
at the parting of the ways” ( pantham visarge), that is of course
on the threshold of the gate of the worlds ( lokadvara ). Amongst
the consequences of such an opposite orientation of the light and
dark worlds we may note, for example, “ Those that come hither-
ward^ {arcane) they call departing” ( paracah ), RV. I. 164. 19,
and What incantation the Angels pronounce forwards ( avastat ),
that the Titans pronounce backwards” ( parastat ), JB. I. 125,
analogous to which is the pulling of the Devas and Asuras in
Ananda K. Coomaraswamy
403
opposite direction at the Churning of the Ocean, and it should not
be overlooked that such an opposition of the opposing principles is
indispensable for creation. From the karmakanda and ksatriya
point of view, the auspicious motion is forwards in a rectilinear
sense; but from the jnanakanda and brahmana point of view the
auspicious direction is, not indeed backwards, but — in a sense to be
explained — nevertheless an opposite one. Inevitably opposite, for
when the forward steps have been taken, they must in some sense
be retraced, whatever has been affirmed must also be denied, what-
ever has been stolen must be restored, if ever the Wayfarer is to
reach That One “ who never really rises nor sets.” For the extro-
verted consciousness, accordingly, an introversion is required, and
this is what is alluded to in all such expressions as pratyakcetana,
“reverse thinking,” defined as follows by Maniprabha on YS. I. 29,
“Thought is said to be reversed ( pratyanc ) when it turns ( ancati )
against the current ” ( pratipam ), which as Bhoja adds, “ is effected
in the case of yogis.” The “upstream” imagery, which recurs
also in the Pali Buddhist uddhamsota, “ Upstreamer,” is first to
my knowledge explicitly employed in TS. YII. 5. 7. 4, pratikula
iva va itah svargo lokah, “ Heaven world is counter-current as it
were from here,” cf. JB. III. 150 and PB. XXY. 10. 12-18.
As a further example of “reverse thinking” may be cited BG.
II. 69, “ That which is the night of all beings is for the truly poor
man ( sarhnyast ) the time of wakening; when other beings are
awake, then it is night for the seeing Muni,” cf. “ The light that
is in you is darkness,” and the discussion of susupanam in section 6
above, recalling that susupta, “ Deep Sleep,” is contrasted in the
jnanakanda with the “Waking State ” of consciousness, as superior
to inferior.
It is important to observe, at the same time, that the “ opposite
direction” is not a backward one, but onward (TS. YII. 2. 1. 3
prdh iva hi suvargah). The Wayfarer, whether he continues on the
devayana or lingers on the pitryana, is always thought of as fol-
lowing up the circle of the Year, he does not turn about leftwise
to go backwards (incantations are repeated backwards and widder-
shins movements made only in black magic) ; any such backsliding
( avasarpana as contrasted with atisarpana) would involve, not the
desired integration ( samskarana ) but a disintegration ( vikarana ,
visrahsana) . It should be added that the circumambulation of the
Year which represents the individual’s pilgrimage envisaged as if
404 Angel and Titan: An Essay in Vedic Ontology
taking place on a given level of reference, a single “ world ” ( loha ),
can be regarded from another point of view as a movement outwards
( pravrtti ) from the centre towards the circumference, and con-
versely ( nivrtti ), this motion following first a downward and later
an upward course on a continuous spiral centred about the axis of
the universe; the points at which the spiral cuts successive levels
of reference, and in particular those planes that represent the
“ seven worlds,” representing the different stations that are occu-
pied hy this individual principle in the course of its transmigration
( paribhramana ) and mode-ification ( vrtti ). The Wayfarer in
either case — when half the circle has been run, or when the spiral
is reversed — moves now in a new and opposite direction, “ counter-
current.” The turning point, so critical in the history of the indi-
vidual, is referred to in religion as a repentance, or even more
significantly as a conversion, while in metaphysics this is the
“reversion of the spiritual power,” brahmana avartah as cited
above, of which dis-passion ( vairdgya ) is the sign. The pilgrimage
is of significance for the pilgrim only until he reaches its end, until
he goes home” ( astam eti), where none will ask him whence he
came or whither he went; the pilgrimage begins with a gliding
forth ( prasarpana , updddsarpana, etc.) from the bonds of Varuna,
of Death, which is coincident with the rising of the Sun, the
Light of them that sit in darkness” ( tamasi harmye), summon-
ing those asleep to take up their beds and walk, and ends in a
f^U'gliding (a tisarpana) that is a full-release ( atimohsa ) from
“all the ills that follow in the bridesmaid’s train” (X. 85. 31).
That emancipation is a return to Varuna, to Death, no longer as
prisoner, but as a friend, there the pilgrim once more sees his
“Father and Mother” (I. 24. 1), Varuna and Aditi, Heaven and
Earth, united m the common nest (X. 5. 2) ; Varuna is deathless
(RV. I. 164. 38), “Death does not die” (§B. X. 5. 2 3), the
Comprehensor unified with Death « becomes the Single Angel, even
Death, discards recurrent death, death gets him not ” (BTJ 12 7).
An understanding of the ontology and teleology thus formulated in
\ . and later is indispensable for any valid interpretation of the
exts themselves— to tarn praveda ...so asmin madeta (AV. IX.
' o'q ? T 0thenrise ’ tan na ve da him red harisyati (RV. I.
Ananda K. Coomaraswamy
405
8. Casting the snake-skin, or changing color or garment
The proposition that “ The serpents are, that is, are consubstan-
tial with, the Adityas,” the “ Suns ” or children of Aditi, already
cited from PB., can be supported and amplified from many other
texts. In BV. IX. 86. 44, for example, Soma “ like Ahi, creeps
forward out of his old skin ” ( ahir na jurnam ati sarpati) ; in IV.
13. 4 “ Thou goest forth with mightiest steeds, discarding the black
robe ( asitam . . . vasma, cf. asitah in AV. VI. 72. 1), the quiver-
ing rays of the Sun, as he extends his web ( tantum avavyayan . . .
rasmayah, involving the “ spider ” imagery), sink the darkness
like a skin ( carmeva ) into the Waters,” cf. VII. 63. 1; that is,
“when man’s libation calls me to the white-garment” ( nirnije ,
X. 49. 7), for indeed Varuna “changes the black robes into clean
and white ones in his operation ” ( anu urata, VIII. 41. 10, his
operations being respectively interior, guhya, and exterior, avis),
“Agni now wields, now layeth down his tool ( vasim .), as does the
Titan his white garment ” (VIII. 19. 23, cf. X. 20. 6 agnim . . .
vasimantam, “ with the flaming sword ”?) ; in X. 63. 4 the Adityas
“ man-regarding, with ever open eyes, have won as Angels, won by
their qualification ( arhana ) a lofty aeviternity; driving in chariots
of light ( jyotirathah , contrast the young streams that are still
‘footless and earless’ in X. 99.4), having the serpents’ magic but
yet innocent ( ahimaya anagasah, exact equivalent of Matt. X. 16,
prudentes sicut serpentes, et simplices sicut columbae) , have clothed
them in a glorious heavenly garment.” In JB. II. 134 “ As Ahi
casts his skin, as one would pull a blade of grass from its sheath,
so he (Indra) is liberated from all evil ” ( yathahir ahi-cchavyai
nirmucyeta . . . eva, sarvasmat papmano nirmucyate). In PB.
XXV. 15. 4 “By that sacrificial session, the serpents conquered
Death; he conquers Death who follows the same course. Thereby
they shook off their old skin, and crept onwards, put away Death
and conquered him. The serpents are the Adityas. He who follows
the same course shall shine with the Adityas’ glory.” In SB. II.
3. 1. 3 and 6 the Sun, who when he sets enters as an embryo
( garbha ) into that womb that is Agni ( agnav eva yonau), 38 and is
** “ The womb that is Agni,” viz. the Agni that is hidden, ab intra, may
seem to stand in need of explanation. The expression tallies with PB.
XXV. 10. 10, where “This Mitra pours his seed into Varuna” (retah
varvno sincati), 4B. II. 2. 4. 5 (see p. 387, above) where the consuming
3
406 Angel and Titan: An Essay in Vedic Ontology
hidden by the night as embryos are hidden, now when he rises,
“ Even as Ahi, so does he free himself from his skin ( yatha ahis
tvaco nirmucyeta ) , so does he free himself from night, from evil”
(papmanah, cf. AB. V. 25, where the Snn is called “ that Angel
who has most effectively smitten evil away ”) ; and all this is imi-
tated in the ritual when the officiating priests “ creep ” ( srp , with
pra, prati, nih, etc.) to or from the sadas, “ Even as Ahi frees
himself from his skin, even so do they free themselves from all
Agni, Vac being absent, receives Prajapati’s seed, wbo thus reproduces
himself (cf. A A . II. 3. 7 where the seed in man is proper to the Sun, the
blood in woman proper to Agni, and also BU. VI. 4. 3, where in a sacra-
mental interpretation of the sexual act, the place of Agni’s kindling is
analogically madhyatas tau muskau) ; and is likewise in agreement with
BG. XIV. 3, “My womb (yoni) is the Great Brahman, therein I lay the
embryo” ( garbham, dadhdmi, cf. RV. IX. 74. 5, where “Soma lays the
embryo in Aditi’s womb,” dadhati garbham aditer upasthe) , this “Great
Brahman” corresponding to the “Transcendental Nature” ( para praJcrti)
that is the “womb of all existences” ( etad yonlni bhutani sarvani, BG.
VII. 5-6) , “ which Nature is mine own, and I when I resort to her, I pour
forth at her will this whole body of being that hath no independent will ”
(ib. IX.) cf. Eckhart, “From the Father’s embrace of his own nature
comes the eternal playing (~lild) of the Son”; or again, Mumlaka Dp.
III. 1. 3 where the Highest is referred to as “ Creator, Lord, and Person,
Brahma-womb” (brahma-yoni) , cf. RV. X. 29. 14 where Agni “is born
from the Titan’s womb” ( asurasya jathardt ajayata), and SB. VI. 1. 2.
6-9. where Prajapati is “pregnant” ( garbhin ).
None of this is strange, even to Christian theology, but only unfamiliar:
the Supreme Identity, tad ekam , is the unity of a conjoint principle, and
were it otherwise the birth of the Son could not be called a vital operation
(St, Thomas, Sum. Theol. I. 27. 2). That Supreme Identity may be called
by the names of either of its conjoint principles, i. e. may be spoken of as
\ aruna or Agni (usually m. but in the passages discussed semantically f.)
or as Aditi or Viraj (both usually f. but often also m.), may in other
words be thought of either as f. or m. or both at once. What may be said
of the Viraj, whence all things milk their characteristic virtue, “ Who
knoweth her progenitive duality?” (mithunatvam, AV. VIII. 9. 10), cf.
JUB. I. 54, where the conjoint principles Saman and Rk., i. e. Heaven and
Earth, become Viraj,’ and only thus in unity, within — “beget” (tau
virad bhutva prajanayatam) the Sun, after whose birth they are again
divided, is also repeatedly affirmed in RV. e. g. X. 27. 23 krntatrdd esdm
upara. udayan, “ at their diremption rose the latter.”
That he who both “ begets ” and “ brings forth we meet in Christian
doctrine with such expressions as “the Father’s child-bearing is a con-
joint principle is to allude to his essence and his nature, which are one
and the same in him, so that we speak indifferently of the “ divine essence ”
Ananda K. Coomaraswamy
407
evil.” To put off the snake skin corresponds, accordingly, to
“ putting off the old man.”
To put off Death is to escape from Varuna, that is from the bonds
of Varuna. Most of the difficulties that have been felt in the inter-
pretation of Varuna, as “ a god of Day ” or as a “ god of night,”
have arisen from a failure to observe that he is from the beginning
both, how one and now the other “ according to his operation ”
(ami vrata, VIII. 41. 10), although when contrasted with Mitra,
as Titan with Angel, eternal with mortal, night with day, the non-
proceeding Varuna is the power of darkness, the Father or Elder
and “ divine nature ” ; he may as well be called a Mother as a Father, as
in the expression “ Natura naturans, Creatrix, Deus.” The doctrine of
the Son’s eternal birth indeed implies not merely a temporal mother, but
an eternal maternity in God, which is precisely that of the divine nature
“ by which the Father begets ” ( St. Thomas, Sum. Theol. I. 41. 5, cf.
Damascene, de Fid. Orth. I. 18 and Augustine, de Trin. XIV. 9). That
God is thus the Father-Mother, or simply “Parents” (plu., du.) may be
compared to the Vedic usage, in which the “ Parents ” are spoken of
indifferently as “Mothers” ( matara ) or as “Fathers” ( pitard ), Skr.
having the advantage of recourse to grammatically dual forms which do
not imply exactly what an “ and ” implies, but rather specify the dual
aspect of a single substance, e. g. Mitravarunau, Indragnl, in the first case
the relation being that of Son-Father, in the second that of King-Priest.
It must not be forgotten that from an Indian point of view the “ seed ”
is consubstantial with him whose seed it is, and thus the father is the
embryo, and reborn as the son, as for example in RV. VI. 70. 3 “ He in
his begotten is born again, by law” (pro prajdbhir jay ate dharmanas pari) .
Note should be taken of this in connection with the often misinterpreted
doctrine of reincarnation and common confusion of reincarnation with
transmigration — the father as an individual principle transmigrates, and
is thus reborn in another mode of being, but as father is reproduced in his
son in that same mode of being in which the fact of paternity had been
occasioned by the fact of filiation. The father, who sooner or later passes
away — and this applies as much to the Father as to any individual
principle, for “God comes and goes, God passes away” (Eckhart) — is
resurrected in the son, who again as in this way bringing his father to
birth, as well as inasmuch as filiation is the occasion of paternity, is
called his “ father’s father.” Resurrection and transmigration are Vedic
doctrines, not so “ reincarnation ” in the supposedly Buddhist and in the
Theosophical sense. Even in BG. II. 22 it iB far from likely that the
“ body-dweller ” dehi) who abandons his inveterated bodies ( sarirani vihaya
jirnani, echoing PB. XXV. 15. 4 hitva. jirnam tvacam) does not imply the
living principle in all things rather than any individual principle as such.
408 Angel and Titan: An Essay in Vedic Ontology
Brother ab intra (I. 164. 38, X. 85, 17-18, 36 X. 132. 4, and more
explicitly in TS. II. 1. 7 and 9). In the same way Agni, “ Yanina
at birth, Mitra when kindled ” (RV. V. 3. 1), “ Varujja as Jata-
vedas, Mitra as priest and house-friend ” (III. 5. 4), “ Tanunapat
as Titan embryo, the Praise of Men when born abroad ” (III. 29.
11), is from the first point of view a man-devouring, flesh-eating
power to be avoided by all means (X. 16. 9 etc.), and from the
second the herald ( duta ) of the Angels and Friend (mitra) and
Guest ( atithi ) of man, just as his Nordic equivalent, Loki, is now
the foe and now the ally of the Aesir. In general theology, these
contrasted aspects of the deity are those respectively of Mercy and
of Justice; in Islamic metaphysics, for example, Heaven is the
reflection of his absolute Love, Hell of his absolute Majesty. Here
we are concerned with Varuna in the latter aspect, that of the
Varuna from whose justice the herbs are besought to deliver us 40 —
“Release me from the curse, to wit from that of Varuna, from
Yama’s hobble ” ( muncantu ma sapathyad atho varunyad uta, atho
yamasya padblsat, X. 97. 16, where may be noted the assimilation
of Varuna to Yama, and that to be “tied by the foot,” or
“hobbled,” is virtually to be “footless,” cf. padgrbhi, “Foot-
seizer,” a demon in X. 49. 5). 41
In X. 129. 1 the question is posed, “What covered up?” or
Who enveloped? ’ (Icim dvarivar) , i. e. when as yet there was no
distinction of being and non-being, life and death, day and night;
the most evident answers are to be found in VIII. 100. 7 “ It was
That in X. 85. 18 he who orders the seasons and is born again ”
( rtunr anyo ri dadhaj jdyate punah) may not as Sayana says, be the Moon,
but Agni or the Sun, may be seen by comparison with X. 72. 9 prajayai
mrtyave tvat punar martandam abharat, II. 38. 4 where Savitr vi rtunr
adardhah, and X. 2. 1 and 3, where Agni is addressed, vidvdn rtunr rtupate
. . . rtiin kalpaydti.
“ “ The herba wh °se king is Soma-are invoked here, because it is by
the soma-draught that Indra is inspired and empowered to release his
friends.
41 As regards ‘ release from Varuna,” the inverse thought ( pratyatcce -
tana) should be noted in VII. 86. 2, kadd nv antar varune bhuvdni,
“ When at last shall I come to be within Varuna T”, i. e. "dead and
buried m the Godhead,” cf. VII. 88, where also Varuna is both loved and
feared. It is indeed by Varuna himself, when he shows his face (Agni,
VII. 88. 2), when he becomes Savitr (SB. XII. 2. 7. 17) that one is freed
from Parana's bonds; the Father oa the Son is the redeemer from the
Ananda K. Coomaraswamy
409
Vrtra that enveloped ” (yo vo avdvarlt vrtrah), and X. 90. 1 where
it is the Person (purusa), whose identity with Ahi-Vrtra has
already been deduced on other grounds, who “ encloses Earth all
round about, and overpasses the dasangulam ” (sa bhumirh visvato
vrtva aty atisthad dasangulam — the meaning of the last word need
not detain us) ; or again in TS. II. 4. 12 “ Inasmuch as he enclosed
these worlds, that is why he is ‘ Vrtra ’ ” ( yad iman lokan avrnot
tad vrtrasya vrtratvam) — this derivation from vr being etymo-
logically preferable to that from vrt, though from a nairukta, or
hermeneutic, point of view, as well as the semantic (since both
operations coincide in the referent), both derivations may be
regarded as valid.
In any case, and apart from the evident functional equivalence,
the common derivation of “Varuna” and “Yrtra” from vr sug-
gests that “ That One ” in whom and by whom all things are
concealed while as yet he is “ equally spirated, despirated ” ( anid
avatam, X. 129. 2) must be as much Varuna as Vrtra. That
Varuna is indeed himself the “fence ” ( varana ) is indicated by the
variant texts, varana varayatai in AV. VI. 85. 1 and X. 3. 5, and
varuno varayat in TA. VI. 9. 2 ; cf. also “ vala ” = vara, and
varaha, also from vr. GB. I. 7 takes up the words of RV. X. 90. 1
with slight variation; the timid waters choose the Brahman to be
their king, and “ inasmuch as he encompassed them, he was their
de-fence ( yac ca vrtvatisthans tad varano ’ bhavat ), and being such
a ‘fence’ he is also to be known as ‘Varuna’ {tarn va etam
varanam santam, varuna ity acaksate), that is, metaphysically”
( parok$ena ). Further, “In that he was separated from the sea
( samudrad amucyata ) he became ‘ Mueyu,’ and this Mucyu is meta-
physically known as ‘Death ’ . . . Varuna, Mrtyu, from all whose
members as he strove and seethed ( srdntasya taptasya ) the tincture
flowed as sweat (raso ’ ksarat , so ’ngaraso ’bhavantam), and that
‘ ahgarasa ’ is metaphysically known as ‘ Angirasas.’ ” The latter
part of this relatively “ late ” text exactly corresponds to BU.
I. 2. 2, but whether or not to be regarded as wholly explicit in RV.,
the exegesis is altogether correct. Mucyu is no doubt the same as
the Buddhist Naga Mucalinda or Mucilinda, cf. Mucukunda in
Mbh. In any case, it is impossible to doubt the identity of Varuna
ab intra with the Asura-pitr, Ahi-Vrtra, and Mrtyu ■= Mara, nor
his identity with the dreaded forms of Agni and Rudra — Noster
410 Angel and Titan: An Essay in Vedic Ontology
Deus ignis consumens est.* 2 Nor can it be denied that Mitra, the
kindled Agni, is Varuna’s “ face,” and Surya his “ eye.” The dual
Mitravarmaau is the unity of both in what from our point of view
appears to be a dual operation, one of contrasted activity and idle-
ness, productivity and impotence, mercy and judgment, duration
and eternity, the visurupani savrata of VI. 70. 3. In this identity,
the consubstantial or consanguineous pair, Mitra and Varuna, the
one made manifest and subject to inveteration, the other unseen
and eternal (I. 164. 38 and X. 85. 17-18), are respectively the
apara and the para Brahman of the Upanisads, likewise mortal and
immortal, in a likeness and not in any likeness (BU. II. 3). 43
“ This identity or coincidence was maintained by Bergaigne, but has
been doubted by others, including Norman Brown (JAOS. 39. 108), who
however informs me in correspondance that he does not absolutely deny
its possibility. It is in fact only if we omit the qualifying ab intra from
the proposition enunciated as above that “ it requires a strong effort of
will to identify two characters so extremely dissimilar in the Veda as are
Varuna and Vrtra ” (Brown, loc. cit. ). It may be observed also, that even
for the scholar who is not a professed Christian, a modern Christian
inheritance and “ moralistic ” preoccupation have made it difficult to
accept the position of the older teaching, by no means unknown even to
the Middle Ages in Europe, that “ good ” and “ evil ” have a valid
significance only “ under the sun ” and “ within the worlds,” but in the
Supreme Identity are coincident without opposition or composition.
43 In the present article, references are drawn as far as possible from
EV. rather than from “ later ” sources. At the same time, I am far more
in agreement with Bloomfield, who argues that we must abandon the belief
“ that the allusions to the story which may be gathered from the scattered
mantras are the only true material for its reconstruction ” and like him
am “ more and more inclined to the belief that mantra and brahrnana are
for the least part chronological distinctions; that they represent two
modes of literary activity, and two modes of literary speech, which are
largely contemporaneous. . . . Both forms existed together, for aught we
know, from the earliest times ” (JAOS. 15. 144, cf. Eggeling in SBE.
XII. xxiv, and Edgerton in JAOS. 36, 197), than with Brown who argues
that “ the later material is so liable to follow ideas not really contained
in the Rigveda ” (JAOS. 51. 108). Even in the Upanisads I do not see
the development of any new doctrines, merely a certain distinction in
phraseology and a difference of emphasis. For example, as to the identity
of Varuna with Brahman: in the first place, as remarked by Grassmann,
T Vorterbuch, s. v. brahman , “ die Keime der spateren Sonderung finden sich
schon vereinzelt im RV.” (a statement certainly erring on the side of
moderation), and in the second, it would be very difficult to distinguish
the conception of Mitravarunau, the latter the “ immortal, uterine brother
Ananda K. Coomaraswamy 411
9. The Endlessness of Agni
In RV. IY. 1. 11-12 cited above at the close of section 6, q. v.,
in a description of Agni, when “ first born in his ground,” budhne,
i. e. as Ahi Budhnya, he is referred to as “ footless and headless,
hiding both his ends” ( apad asirsa guhamdno anta). Evidently,
guhamano antd is tantamount to ananta, “ endless,” “ infinite,”
“ eternal,” “ without beginning or end,” and also the name of the
seven-headed ndga, Sesa, “ Residue,” who forms the couch (say ana)
of Narayana-Visnu as the latter lies recumbent on the back of the
of the mortal; men mark the one and fail to mark the other” (RV. I.
164. 38, cf. X. 85. 17-18) from that of the two aspects of the Brahman,
para and apara, respectively immortal and mortal, in a likeness and not
in any likeness (BU. II. 3) ; in such a case it is the reference, and not
the name that is significant, and in any case the distinction of brahma
from ksatra, as well as their coincidence, outwardly in the dual IndragnI
and inwardly in the Supreme Identity, are sufficiently explicit.
It is not, of course, intended to deny that there is a linguistic develop-
ment in the Upanisads, when we compare them with RV., which denial
would be absurd. But literary history and the history of metaphysics
are two very different things, one might even say that the philosophia
perennis has no history, and cannot have a history, which was also
Augustine’s view. What then do we understand by Bloomfield’s “ two
modes of literary expression (belonging to) the same cycle of thought ”
(loc. cit.)? Certainly not his “lyric” and “epic-didactic” modes; for
RV. is no more “ lyrical ” in our sense than it is in any part whatever
“satirical,” and if the Brahmanas are in parts didactic (and we should
describe them rather as technical and exegetical), they are certainly not
“ epic ” in any literary sense. The contrasted modes are those of liturgy
on the one hand and initiatory teaching on the other: the exegetical parts
of the Brahmanas, and the Upanisads in general, are primarily concerned
with jatavidya, bhdvavrtta, or “ Genesis,” that kind of knowledge, viz.
which is ascribed to and expected of the Brahman par excellence, that priest
viz. who does not himself take an active part in the ritual, but jatavidydm
vadati (X. 71. 11), he in other words who on the proper occasions,
that would be either in the colloquies of Brahmans or in giving instruction
to a qualified pupil, gives the answers to all those questions that are
posed in the brahmodya hymns, such questions for example as kirn
avarivar in X. 129. 1.
Otherwise expressed, the karmakanda, sanctioning and enjoining action,
represents that part of the Vedas proper to the k$atra or temporal power;
the jnanakdnda, theoretical in the strict sense of the word, that part
proper to the brahma or spiritual power. Nothing forbids us to suppose
that the latter part was not originally “ published,” nor in fact “ pub-
lished ” until later, when a linguistic development had already taken
412 Angel and Titan: An Essay in Vedic Ontology
primordial Waters at the dawn of creation, the beginning of an
aeon (Mbh. I. 36. 24, etc.). Guhamano anta furthermore implies
a conjunction of extremities, the converse of the separation of the
Purusa’s head and feet in EV. X. 90. 14, 44 wherewith the creation
is initiated; implies, in other words, such a conjunction of ex-
tremities as is represented by the ancient and well-known symbol
of the serpent with its tail in its mouth, or such strapwork motifs
in art as are represented in their simplest form by the familiar
symbol oo denoting mathematical infinity. It is then by no means
surprising that in the ritual, the primary significance of which is a
symbolic reintegration of the divided principle and therewith of the
place. Reasons for such a publication at this later time may be connected
with the ksatriya reaction against the spiritual power, involving in the
first place the claim to an intellectual equality or even a superiority, and
leading finally to a heterodox development in Buddhism and Jainism.
However this may be, we could not expect to find in a liturgy also a
doctrinal exposition, where it would he out of place. It is true that the
material is so extensive, and so infallibly consistent with itself (“its
every part seems to be conscious of and assimilated to every other part,
Bloomfield in JAOS. XXIX. 288 ) , and we may add with traditional
metaphysical doctrines preserved by other than Indian cultures, that it is
by no means impossible to extract from the mantras the doctrines assumed
in them, just as it would be possible to deduce the implied doctrine from
the Psalms or the mediaeval Latin hymns; what in fact the consistency
proves is that those who composed the mantras, whether human or super-
human beings, must have been fully aware of all their implications, or if
not it would be as if we had come upon a series of elegant mathematical
formulae, and yet believed that they had been written down blindly, which
is as much as to say under verbal as well as theoretical inspiration; where-
as it is impossible to suppose that the Veda in its present form could have
antedated, let us say, a knowledge of carpentry, which means that the
ipssissima verba of the Veda, as distinct from their references, must be
thought of as in some sense of human and temporal origin. It is not with
respect to the words in which it is recorded that the sanatana dharma is
eternal; the “eternity” of tradition has nothing to do with the possible
“ dating ” of a given scripture as late as the first millennium B. C.
That in X. 90. 1 the Purusa, in the beginning, is said to have a
thousand heads, a thousand eyes, a thousand feet, cannot be taken literally;
the sense is rather that all these are latent in him, who is omniform or
protean, 1 . e. as in VS. XIII. 41, where the Solar embryo (i.e. ab intra,
“at night,” see SB. 3. 1. 3 cited in section 8) is called “the omniform
likeness of a thousand” ( sahasrasya pratimam visvarupam) , the mani-
fested Sun being accordingly “thousand-footed” (sahasrapad, VIII. 69.
16).
Ananda K. Coomaraswamy
413
officiant himself, there should be so much stress laid on the putting
together again of the two ends, for example, the ends of the Year
or beginning and end of the Saman, which ends are divided in the
worlds, as Heaven from Earth, or Sun from Moon. In this con-
nection the ritual texts aTe of the highest interest both with respect
to the doctrine involved and also, what amounts to the same thing,
as affording an intelligible and authoritative explanation of the
meaning of symbols and the content of traditional arts.
In AB. III. 43, for example, we find: “ The Agnistoma is (out-
wardly a rite, but) metaphysically Agni. . . . Again, in that they
praised him as the Head ( murdhnam santam) and as having be-
come Light ( jyotis ) , 45 the Agnistoma being the praise of light, they
4S Murdhnam santam jyotir bhutarn; in agreement with all that has
already been cited respecting the transformation of the serpent’s head into
the Sun or Heaven, and more exactly with RV. X. 88. 6 “ At night Agni
is the Head of being ( murdha bhuvo bhavati naktam agnih) , thence in the
morning he is born as the rising Sun ” ( tatah suryo jay ate pratar udyan) ;
which text also makes it clear that the so-called Brahmana doctrine, which
is also Sayana’s (on I. 103. 1), viz. that at night the Sun enters into
Agni, is not a new one. Cf. also X. 8. 6 “ to Heaven thou (Agni) liftest
up thy radiant Head.”
These doctrines about the “ Head ” are paralleled in Gnostic formula-
tions, cf. the Syriac Valentinian hymn included in the Panarion of
Epiphanius, verse 5, reading “ From the Head he proclaimed tidings about
the Father,” as to which W. K. Newbold (JAOS. 38. 15) remarks “The
‘Head’ is the first emanation of the Abyss, usually called Nous or
MoKryewj s, but often Ilanjp or ’A pxv- ... It was ‘ from the Head ’ that the
Light proclaimed tidings, for being himself an emanation of Nous, who
alone knew the Father, he derived from him all that he proclaimed to
the Aeons.” In the same way the subdivision of the One, which we have
recognized to be the sacrificial act of creation — self-sacrificial in that He
lends himself to this division, a suffered passion in that it is by “ man ”
that He is mentally outstretched on the Procrustean bed of time and
space in cosmic crucifixion — is also Gnostic doctrine, e. g. in the “ Untitled
Apocalypse” (Bruce Codex), “He it is whose limbs (or members) make
many a myriad of myriad of powers, each of which comes from Him.”
The gnostic character of the Indian doctrine of Sacrifice was remarked
upon by Eggeling in SBE. XLIII. xvii. That the teachings of Plotinus
are hardly distinguishable from those of the Upanisads has often been
recognized. The latter problem has too often been discussed (e. g. by
Keith, in Indian Culture, II. 135 ff.) as though the only alternatives
were those of borrowing or of independent origination. It is not thus,
however, that the similarities, often amounting to identity in the scrip-
tures of widely separated cultures, are envisaged by those who speak of
414 Angel and Titan: An Essay in Vedic Ontology
call it Jyotistoma, or ‘Light-laud’ metaphysically. . . . This is
the sacrificial pattern ( yajhaTcratuh ) without beginning or end
(apurvo anapamh, cf. Dante’s ne prima ne poscia, Paradiso, XXIX,
20) ; the Agnistoma is like a chariot wheel, endless (ananta), i6 as
is its coming forth so is its onward course (yatheva prayanarh
yathodayanam) . As to this a sacrificial verse ( yajnagatha ) is
sung: 47 ‘That which is its beginning is also its end ( yad asya
purvam apararh tad asya), that again which is its end is also its
beginning’; 48 like the gliding of a serpent ( aher iva sarpanam)
is that of the Sakala, 49 they do not discriminate which of the two
the “ Ancient Wisdom ” — an expression which, however it may have been
abused, is far from meaningless. The true explanation is to he found in
the integrity of what has been called “ the universal and unanimous
tradition ” : “ Die Menschheitsbildung ist ein einheitliehes Ganzes, und
in den verschiedenen Kulturen findet man die Dialekte der einen Geistes-
spraehe ” ( Jeremias, Alt orient alischen Geisteskultur, Vorwort) ; “ Eine
grosse Weltlinie der Metaphysik zieht sich durch aller Volker hindurch ”
(Sauter, in Archiv fur Jtechts- und SozialphUosophie, Oct. 1934, p. 9).
Even apart from any comparisons of wordings, this should be self-evident
to every student of the history of symbols; visual symbols being essen-
tially the language of metaphysics, aB words are of philosophy.
48 Cf. RV. V. 5$. 5 and VIII. 20. 14, “ spokes where none is last in order.”
17 The source of this gathd is unknown, but Sayana says “ it is chanted
everywhere.”
48 Cf. Boethius, de Cons. I, prose 6, “ Is it possible that you who know
the beginning of all things (Skr. jatavidyd) should not also know their
end”; similar St. Thomas, Sum. Theol., I. 103. 2c; Eckhart, I. 224
(Evans ed.) “In principio (Skt. agre ) signifies, in the beginning of all
things. It also means the end of all things, since the first beginning
is because of the last end. . . . What is the last end? It is the mystery
of the darkness of the eternal Godhead which is unknown (Skr. anirukta ,
etc.) and never has been known and never shall be known”; Jeremias,
Der Antichrist in Geschichte und Gegenumrt , 1930, p. 4, “ Der Abendlander
denkt linienhaft in die Feme, darum mechanisch, areligios, faustisch. , . -
Das Morgenland und die Bibel (and might have been added, the Edda)
denken nicht linienhaft, sondem zeitraumlich, spiralisch, kreislaufig. Das
Weltgeschehen geht in Spiralen, die sich bis in die Vollendung fort-
setzen. . . . Das grossartige Symbol der Schlange, die sich in den eigenen
Schwanz beisst, stelt den Aeon dar.” The circumference of a circle is at
the same time endless,” and wholly constituted of coincident beginnings
and ends.
4 Sayana says that Sakala is a “name of Ahi.” That is hardly, as
Keith calls it, “absurd”; it is none the less likely enough that sakala
also designated a particular “serpentine” ritual, of such a sort for
Ananda K. Coomaraswamy
415
(ends) is anterior” ( na vi jdnmti yatarat paras lat, cf. Dante’s
senza distinzion nell ’ esordire, Paradiso, XXIX, 30).
In JUB. I. 35 “ The Year is in the Saman. . . . The Year is
endless (ananta), its two ends ( antau ) are Winter and Spring;
after ( anu ) this it is that the two ends of a village are united,
after this that the two ends of a necklet meet, after this that the
Serpent lies wrapping round about his coils (etad anv ahir bhogdn
paryahrtya saye), truly like a necklace laid end to end about
( samantam . . . dbhiparyaMa) the neck, so is the Endless Chant ”
( anantam sdma ). In JUB. I. 2, again, it is prescribed that the
Gayatra Saman should be sung “ according to the course of the
Gale and the Waters” ( vayos ca apah cairn vartma geyam),
which course is, with respect to the Gale, “ from all quarters
together, winding itself in so as to generate a whirlwind” ( res -
manan janamano nivestamanah) , and as to the Waters, “making
bends, winding themselves in, flowing in eddies ” ( ankansi hurvand
nivestamana avartan 50 srjamdndh), and with respect to both, in this
way at the same time fontal and inflowing (cf. TS. III. 2. 2,
verses), “not straight away ( paraii ), lest there be a loss” ( ksayad
eva bibhyat, cf. RV. VIII. 7. 16, utsam duhanto aJcsitam). Simi-
larly in AB. V. 2, “ they proceed in sets of three days without a
break (samtatais tryahair avyavachinnair yanti), and ib. III. 44,
where it is laid down that the Agnistoma should be celebrated
“ without haste,” and in accordance with motion of the Sun “ who
never really sets nor rises ” (na kaddcanastam eti nodeti), but only
“ inverts himself ” (viparyasyate, cf. PB. VII. 10. 3, and a vavrtsva
in RV. IV. 1. 2), “ indeed he never sets ” (na ha vai nimrocati ) , 51
example as the Prsthya Sadaha described in AB. V. 22, where the Serpent
Queen is lauded.
50 Cf. RV. X. 30. 10, avarvrtatih . . . dvidharah; JUB. III. 33, where
when “breath turns resounding up and up” (pranas svarya upary upari
vartate) this is called the “re-turn of the spiritual power” ( brahmana
avartah) ; and the value attached to “auspicious curls” ( nandyavarta ,
etc.) in the later iconography.
51 Echoed in ChU. III. 11. 3 “He indeed neither rises not sets, and for
him that understandeth this, it is evermore high noon, such is the inter-
pretation of the incantation” (no ha va asma udeti na nimlocati sakrd
diva haivdsmai bhavati, ya etdm evam brahmopanisadam veda, where
nimlocati replaces the Brahmana nimrocati, in accordance with a familiar
change (cf. jathara and jathala in RV.) and there is no necessity either
for Bohtlingk’s emendation nimumloca, or for Hume’s designation of na
416
Angel and Titan: An Essay in Vedic Ontology
and “ he who eomprehendeth this (ya evaih veda ) attains to con-
junction, likeness, and same-worldness with Him” ( sayujyam
sarupatam salokyatdm) . In RV. I. 115. 5 the shining of the Sun,
although alternately radiant or dark, is called “ endless ” ( ananta ).
The endless continuity of the divine act of being is emphasized,
indeed, throughout RV. For example, I. 164. 51, “ One and the
same does this Water rise and fall as day succeeds day ” ( samanam
etad udakam uc caity ava cdhahhih) ; I. 123. 8, the Dawns, “Each
like other, today, tomorrow, following Varuna’s lengthy pathway”
( sadrsir adya sadrsir . . . svo dlrgharn sacante varunasya dhama
. . . trimsatam yojanani, the trimsad dhama of X. 189. 3, all day
and night) ; I. 124. 3 “ straight she followeth the cosmic path ”
( rtasya pantham anv eti sadhu) ; I. 160. 1, where the Sun “pro-
ceeds by Law” ( iyate dharmana, cf. in IV. 18. 1 “the ancient
pathway found of old,” and the survival of the same conception
and almost the same phrasing in the Buddhist account of the
Nativity, D. XIV. 1. 21 f. where in connection with every detail it
is repeated, ayam ettha dhammata) ; IV. 18. 6, where the Rivers
of Life “flow cosmic-orderly” ( arsanti rtavarl) and IV. 19. 7
where these young maidens are “ cognizant of Order ” ( rtajhah ,
i.e. foreknow their way).' 2 In I. 113. 3 the paths of Day and
Night are “endless ( adhvd anantah) ; in V. 47. 2 the motion of
Heaven and Earth is on “paths without end” ( anantasah . . .
panthdh ) ; in AV. X. 7. 42 the tissue woven by Day and Night
shall never undo nor come to an end ” ( ncipa vrnjdte na gamato
antam, cf. Dante s ‘ such a withy as shall never be unwithied,”
Paradiso, XXIX. 36). This is all summed up in the beautiful
verses of TS. III. 2. 2. RV. affirms with no uncertain voice, but
nimloca (ti) as “impossible” ( Thirteen Principal Upanishads, p. 207).
Ximlocan ( jaghanarddhah ) occurs in the sense of “West” in BU. I. 1. 1,
tumlocani in the Vi?nu Purana with reference to Varuna's Western
Paradise.
Plotinus offers a striking parallel to the Vedic concept of the Fountain
of Life (utsa, etc.) with its inexhaustible ever-flowing streams of living
water or milk {utsoiH duhanto aksitam, VIII. 7. 16, avatam aksitam, VIII.
72. 10) : Imagine a spring that has no source outside itself; it gives
itself to all the rivers, yet is never exhausted by what they take, but
remains always integrally as it was; the tides that proceed from it are at
one within it before they run their several ways, yet all, in some sense,
know beforehand down what channels they will pour their streams”
( Enneada , III. 8. 10).
Ananda K. Goomaraswamy
417
rather with Hers who in X. 125. 5 “ utters what is most felicitous
alike to Angels and to men ” : Sicut erat in principio, est nunc e t
semper erit, in saecula saeculorum.
10. The trace of “endlessness” in art
In connection with JTTB. I. 35, cited above, we have pointed ont
elsewhere in what manner such a passage illustrates the concept of
art as an imitation of heavenly " forms,” as enunciated for exam-
ple in AB. VI. 27. We have also repeatedly shown, and once more
above in section 6 in connection with the urna, that the symbolism
and iconography of Indian art can almost always be referred to
Vedic formulations, and that apart from these sources, the sym-
bolism and iconography cannot be explained, but only described.
Some further illustrations of this may be given in connection with
the concept of endlessness discussed above. If the Vedic chant was
in fact of such a sort as the Brahmanas indicate, we might well
expect to find some traces of a similar quality in the Indian music
of much later periods. Indian music is in fact of a kind that has
been preserved in Europe only in connection with the Gregorian
chant, which in its turn represents a "style” of great antiquity,
and may have Babylonian sources (Lachmann, Musik des Orients,
1929, p. 9). We find in fact that European auditors have re-
peatedly remarked upon the unbroken sequences and absence of
crisis and finale in Indian music: for example, Keyserling, Travel
Diary, III. 30, “ It is not easy to explain in words what Indian
music means ... no beginning, no end; it is the undulation and
the sway of the eternally flowing stream of life,” and Eox-
Strangways, Music of Hindustan, p. 2, "We do not know what to
make of music which is dilatory without being sentimental, and
utters passion without vehemence.” Not long ago an American
child of five, hearing phonograph records of Indian music, remarked
in my hearing "That kind of music goes round and round, this
way and that way and then comes back.” These are precisely those
formal qualities which are ascribed by the Brahmanas to the Vedic
saman.
If again the philosophia perennis has come down to us in
“ spiraliseh ” terms, such as are so often employed in connection
with the eddyings of inexhaustible waters, the possibilities of being,
stirred into life by the dawn winds of creation and the light of the
418 Angel and Titan: An Essay in Vedic Ontology
risen Sun, it may well be assumed that spirals and maeanders
wherever they occur in primitive art, that is to say in the ideological
art of a time when man was thinking in far more abstract terms
than any to which we are now accustomed, are the signs and sym-
bols of these waters. Notions of endlessness, eternity, recurrence,
surely underlie not only the well-known symbol of the serpent with
its tail in its mouth, and in this sense “ endless,” but also all those
Indian or other ancient motifs of interlacing serpent and dragon
forms in which beginnings and ends are confused, and those well-
known designs of “ strapwork ” and “ knots ” of which the com-
ponent bands have neither beginning nor end. 53
11. Conclusion
It has, we think, been shown beyond all question that the Father
and the Son, Dragon and Solar Hero, although in outward opposi-
tion, are secretly at one, are one and consubstantial. What must
be regarded from without and logically as a dual operation of
alternate sleep and waking, potentiality and act, is inwardly and
really the mere and simple nature of the Supreme Identity ( tad
ekam, sadasat). This Identity, being of conjoint principles, the
same equations hold when the problem is approached on the
feminine side, as has been done in The Darker Side of Dawn. In
the course of the analysis it has been brought out that neither the
Vedic ontology nor the formulae in which it is communicated are
peculiar to KV., but can as well be recognized in all the extra-
BS In Chinese art the tao t‘ieh motif which whether with or without
buffalo horns seems to represent a jawless dragon’s head (e. g. Eumorfopolos
Cat. I, PI. XX, A, 26) ; we find examples of the dragon biting its own
tail ( Relies of Han and pre-Han Dynasties, Tokyo, 1932, PI. LXI, fig. 4,
and Pelliot, Judes Archaiques de Chine, 1925, PI. XVII), or chains of
dragons similarly disposed ( Eumorfopolos Cat. I, PI. LI, A, 72); and if
the dragon form is again and again represented against a background of
spirals or maeanders, what else can these maeanders represent but the
watery abode of these sons of the mist?
On Chinese dragons see also de Visser, The Dragon in China and Japan,
1913; Werner. Dictionary of Chinese Mythology, 1932, s. v. lung; Mac-
kenzie. The Migration of Symbols, 1928, where should be noted also, in
connection with what has been said above regarding Pharaoh, numerous
Egyptian representations of serpents beleaguering waters. On spirals and
dragons see again Mackenzie, and for the importance of the spiral problem
in art, cf. Cook, The Curves of Life, 1914 .
Ananda K. Coomaraswamy 419
Indian forms of the “ universal and unanimous tradition.” At the
same time, the consistency and continuity of the tradition trans-
mitted in Indian literature and art has been suggested ; the tradi-
tion is expanded rather than deformed in the Epics, Puranas, and
Tantras; the name “Vyasa,” that of the “author” of the Mbh.
denoting indeed not “ Compiler,” but “ Expander,” vyasatas signi-
fying “ in great detail,” “ with prolixity,” or “ diffusely.” In the
matter of iconography, more could have been said as to the meaning
of the Naga types in Indian and other arts, but this can be readily
deduced by the reader for himself ; the well-known motif of paired
and interlacing Sagas (as seen on Nagakals and at Konarak)
representing, for example, the co-habitation of the conjoint prin-
ciples ab intra; that of the enmity of Phoenix ( garuda ) and Naga
reflecting the outward opposition of the separated principles.’ 4
Indications have been given of the significance of certain well
recognized characteristics of Indian music, of the use of spiral
forms in “ ornament,” and of the urna as a laksana of the Maha-
purusa ; in the latter connection it may be observed that while the
Mahapurusa, as the Supernal Sun, thus appropriately wears the
solar image on his brow, Siva, who is the power ab intra, as is also
indicated by his naya-omaments, wears the Moon.
In this connection attention may be called to the well-known Etruscan
painting in the Grotta dell’ Oreo ( fourth century b. c. ) depicting a winged
“ demon ” with a serpent, or to speak in Indian terms, a Garuda and
Naga. In this representation, reproduced and discussed by Evans, Palace
of Minos, Vol. IV, pp. 188-190, not only are there to be seen two serpent
heads rising from the bird-like head of the winged “ Phoenix,” but as
remarked by Evans, the pattern of the wings displays “ the same ‘ wave
and dot’ pattern as the adders of the Minoan (snake-) Goddess, and
clearly represent a similar viperine breed.” The ophidian source of the
solar power, who at the same time brandishes the Serpent as immediate
“ Avenger,” could not have been more clearly indicated in art. The two
serpents heads recalled the prdaka-sanu form of Indra represented in the
well-known Mathura image discussed in The Darker Side of Dawn, note 25
(we have called attention above to the equivalence of sfinu and Sira ) . Sir
Arthur Evans assumes an ultimately western Asiatic origin of the form.
THE HORSES OP T‘ANG T‘AI TSUNG AND THE
STELE OF YU
Helen E. Feenald
Formerly of the University Museum, Philadelphia
Since the publication in 1918 by Mr. C. W. Bishop of the stone
reliefs of the famous horses of T £ ang T'ai Tsung, and in particular
of the two which came to the University Museum in Philadelphia 1
at that time, a great deal of additional information has been
gathered about them and some of the related monuments. But
there have also arisen certain doubts about these horses and certain
misconceptions and false inferences have been drawn. In view of
the confusion that seems to exist in regard both to the horses and
to various documents relating to them, I feel that the time has come
to make a few definite and clear statements as to what we know and
what we do not know about these horses.
There are four questions which I shall attempt to answer briefly
in this paper:
1. Are the two reliefs in the University Museum the originals
made for T‘ang T‘ad Tsung in 637, or the copies said to
have been made by Yu Shih-hsiung in 1089 ?
2. Do the so-called ££ large rubbings ” prove the existence of the
copies ?
3. Is there conclusive evidence for the existence of a set of horse
tablets in miniature?
4. What is the Stele of Yu and what evidence does it present in
regard to these questions ?
£ lfc would seem hardly necessary to answer the first question.
Are the two reliefs in the University Museum the originals,”
were it not that the question continues to be asked and a statement
is therefore in order. Yes, they are the originals. That can be
proved by comparing them with the photographs taken by
Chavannes about 1909 when he visited the Chao Ling, which was
the royal burial ground of T‘ a i Tsung up in the mountains five
1 See Bish °P’ The Museum Journal, Vol. IX, Nos. 3 and 4, Sept.-Dee., 1918.
420
The Horses of T‘ang T‘ai Tsung and the Stele of Yu 421
miles north of the town of Li Ch'iian. These photographs were
later published in " Mission Archeologique,” unfortunately without
text, but with captions under the pictures stating that they were
taken in the Chao Ling, and indeed the general view of the site
shows that it was up in the mountains. 1 2
The fact which settles the question of the two reliefs now in the
University Museum is that they show the same injuries and breaks
as those photographed by Chavannes in situ. In Chavannes’s
photograph of the horse “ Curly” (Fig. 1) note the great diagonal
cracks clear across the tablet and especially the ragged breaks of
the raised forelegs and of both hind legs. The tablet in the
Museum shows precisely the same breaks and injuries (Fig. 2).
The Museum photographer has thrown a strong oblique light upon
it which makes the relief seem higher and brings out mutilated
portions in greater prominence than does the diffuse outdoor light
of Chavannes’s picture. 3 Nevertheless a careful comparison will
show that the two photographs are of the same sculpture. Like-
wise, notice the tablet of the horse " Autumn Dew,” or “ Sudden
Dew,” as the name is literally (Fig. B). This is Chavannes’s pic-
ture taken at the Chao Ling. The injuries to the legs and to the
General’s right arm enable us to identify without question the relief
in the Museum (Fig. 4), which shows the identical breaks, besides,
I grieve to say, a few additional ones which it has suffered since
1909. It is possible to copy sculpture exactly, but it is not possible
to make it break in the same way as the original. The reliefs in
the University Museum are therefore the original sculptures from
the Chao Ling.
Now as to the second point. There are in existence authentic
rubbings which have been taken from these sculptures, but there is
also a series of large so-called “ rubbings ” * which, though they
agree in size and general appearance with the original stones, yet
show certain differences. On the original tablet of the horse
"Autumn Dew” (Fig. 4) both horse and man are in profile. All
four feet of the horse rest upon the ground line. The man’s face is
practically in outline. Note the pose of his head on his shoulders;
1 See Mission Archeologique, PI. CCLVII, No. 438.
' Chavannes’s photograph, moreover, appears to have been slightly re-
touched where the legs are broken.
* See Ferguson, Eastern Art, Vol. HI, Figs. 1-6.
4
422
Helen E. Ferndld
the nearly straight line of his belt. And there are the breaks in the
tablet. In this so-called “ rubbing ” (Pig. 5) no breaks are evident
and the whole picture is distorted. The horse stands almost at a
three-quarter angle, with its hind hoofs out of line above the
ground. The General’s belt is curved and tips up behind, his head
is turned half way toward the front and is set upon his shoulders
quite differently from the head of the figure on the tablet. Certain
scholars have thought this distortion was due to an attempt to take
a rubbing from a high relief. This would distort some details, but
should not disturb the relative positions of the main features. Por
instance, it could not turn a horse or a man’s head partly around.
Others have assumed, again, that these differences were due to the
fact that the “ rubbings ” were supposedly taken from copies of the
tablets which Governor Yu Shih-hsiung in his inscription of 1089
says he had made for Thing T £ ai Tsung’s Miao, 5 or memorial
temple, at the West gate of Li Chfiian, and which were to save
sight-seers a trip to the Chao Ling. These authorities have been
convinced that these “ rubbings ” prove the existence of Yu’s copies.
Unfortunately they do not prove anything. They are not even
rubbings. They never saw a stone. Two methods of manufacture
appear to have been used, both employing stencils for the various
parts. The technique in the one case is a perfectly familiar one;
I have often used it in making biological charts. There is a stencil
for each detail, body, head, legs, saddle, etc. The operator lays one
on the paper at the desired angle and blows ink over it with an
atomizer. Then he arranges the next stencil, and so on. An expert
does not even need the stencil — pieces of paper with the desired
curve of the edge will protect the part which is not to be shaded
and give a sharp edge. The softest effects of shading may be
obtained by this method. The other method is a sort of printing
within the stencil by means of an inked pad and in this case the
textile imprint is evident. The rubbings which I have examined
show that an outline of the whole horse was first drawn in pencil
as a guide to laying on the stencils. Placing of the framework
varied. _ Details were touched up with a brush. In other words,
these pictures are simply made up,— not out of “ whole cloth,” I
admit, because the purpose of making them was to sell “repre-
sentations ’ of well-known works of antiquity. As accurate docu-
“ See Ferguson, Eastern Art, Vo], m, p. 64.
The Horses of Hang T e ai Tsung and the Stele of Yu 423
merits, however, these so-called “ rubbings ” are worthless and prove
nothing. They certainly do not prove that Yu’s copies exist, or ever
existed. The distortions are due to the method used, and to the
carelessness of the man who blew the atomizer or placed the stencil.
It has hitherto been assumed that Yu’s copies were made in stone
like the originals. But Yu does not say that this was the case.
He says only that the copies he ordered were to be chen su (
accurate, or “ true models,” and the character used for models, su
(M) means primarily to model in clay. If copies were actually
made, it is possible that they were not of stone but of some more
perishable material. So far as we have learned, there are no
records to show that anyone ever saw these copies. Only an
examination of the site will reveal whether or not they were ever
made.
The chief document in regard to the stone horses of T f ang T‘ai
Tsung, aside from the great tablets themselves, is the stele set up
by Yu Shih-hsiung, Governor of Li Ch^uan in the last half of the
11th century. Rubbings of the inscription on his stele are known
and the inscription is quoted in all the local gazetteers of the region.
It was apparently from the printed quotation in one of the
gazetteers that Mr. Waley made his discovery that the figure of a
man standing in front of “ Autumn Dew ” represented the famous
T‘ang General Ch'iu Hsing-kung. a And it was from the gazetteer
of Li Ch‘iian Hsien that Dr. Ferguson got the text of Yu’s inscrip-
tion which he published and translated in Eastern Art, Yol. Ill,
thus making a great contribution to the knowledge of these sculp-
tures. It would seem almost too obvious to suggest that this
inscription comes from the top of the stele which bore the outline
pictures of the horses, a rubbing of which was illustrated in
Bushell’s Chinese Art (Yol. I, fig. 18). It showed only the horses
and Bushell apparently thought it a stele of the T‘ang period. But
the Li Ch'iian Hsien Chih, after quoting Yu’s inscription, adds a
note which reads, “Below are the pictures and the eulogies.” I
therefore concluded that Yu’s inscription belonged at the top of
Dr. Bushell’s rubbing and I began to search for a rubbing which
would include both. With the kind aid of Mr. C. T. Loo a rubbing
of the nearly complete stele was found. So far as I know, no one
Waley in Burlington Magazine, September, 1923.
424
Helen E. Eernald
has hitherto actually stated that the inscription and the hoTses are
from one and the same stele. Therefore I now present the more
complete picture (Fig. 7), which is important for my next point.
This inscription of Yu Shih-hsiung’s, as has been shown by Dr.
Ferguson, speaks of three monuments or sets of monuments to the
memory of the horses. First, there were the great reliefs in stone,
tablets 5 feet x 6, which T‘ai Tsung had had made and set up at
the Chao Ling 450 years before Yu’s time. Second, Yu had ordered
models of these to be made which were to be exact copies, and these
were for T‘ai Tsung’s Miao at the west gate of the town. Third,
there was another undertaking of Yu’s which has been interpreted
as a third set of tablets, only in miniature, with drawings of the
horses engraved on them, and these were to be put in the same
Miao on the walls of the Wu, the Wu being lateral shelters, or
covered walks, at the sides of one of the courtyards.
Let us examine the evidence for such a set of tablets in minia-
ture. First there are the often cited “ small rubbings ” of the
horses, of which a set was loaned me by Miss Bragg, Director of
the Berkshire Museum, and of which Figure 6 is one. These
average ten inches in height and there is no border to indicate the
edge of a tablet. But, sad to relate, these little pictures are made
by the same methods as the full-size ones. 7 There is even a third
method used, that of printing with wood blocks. Therefore, they
too are false rubbings and, as proof of anything, are worthless.
Again we may assume, however, that something well known is
represented by them. They may be merely reductions of the large
set to a more convenient and less expensive size. I think it more
likely, however, though I cannot yet prove it, that this small set
had its origin in the outline drawings of the horses on the stele of
Yu Shih-hsiung which we have just examined. Chang Ch‘ao, who
visited the Chao Ling and T‘ai Tsung’s Miao in 1611, records that
he found the Six Horse Pictures Stele in the Miao and said that
the horses engraved on it were about seven inches high, which in
Chinese measure of that time would equal about ten inches of our
modern measure. This, and the fact that as a rule no tablet edge
is indicated, lead me to believe that this small set may have been
inspired by the pictures on the stele. But since these are not
rubbings at all, they cannot be accepted as documents.
Miss Bragg- wrote me of the technique, having arrived at the same
conclusions 1 had reached in regard to the method used.
The Horses of T‘ang T‘ai Tsung and the Stele of Yu 425
Secondly, does the text of Yu Shih-hsiung’s inscription neces-
sarily imply that he had a set of horse tablets made in miniature?
Mr. Waley, in his article in the Burlington Magazine, tells of the
modeled copies and continues, “ In the same place he (Yu) set up
incised slabs representing the design of the reliefs.” Evidently
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Portion
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ext of the Inscription on
Yu’s Stele.
Mr. Waley interpreted the text as meaning another set of tablets,
though he does not say they were in miniature. Dr. Ferguson’s
actual translation, “ stone engravings of these figures shall also be
placed in the covered passageways ” 8 does not commit him to the
theory of tablets, but he proceeds, seemingly misled by the set of
* Ferguson, Eastern Art, Vol. Ill, p. 64.
426
Helen E. Femald
“ small rubbings/’ to conclude that it means a set of stone tablets
of the horses in miniature.
Let us look at that portion of the text of Yu’s inscription -which
relates to this matter. (Fig. 8, 16th to 22nd lines inclusive, and
text Fig. 8a.) Yu tells us that he had copies of the Chao Ling
tablets accurately modeled for the audience hall of T‘ai Tsung’s
Miao. The dimensions of the tablets, the delicacy of execution,
nothing should differ by an atom or a hair’s breadth (from the
originals). This would make it convenient for the going-and-
coming-to-see-worthy-ones. % ALSO | jjl) ANOTHER (or,
OTHERS) ( pieh ) \ % TO BE MADE (or, WHICH WERE) |
ft DRAWN-IN-OUTLINE | g PICTURES \ % CUT (or,
ENGRAVED) \ ft on STONE | $ PUT IN | Jfs THE
CLOISTERS (urn) | f UNDER (the roof) j IN ORDER
TO | ^ SPREAD WIDELY (the fame) j it of THOSE | ftp
HANDED-DOWN (things). The solution hinges on what
Yu, the author of the inscription, meant by pieh. Another?
Other? Other what? Other slabs? Another what? Another
monument to the fame of the horses? Another set of horses?
Pieh, which by itself means merely another or others, doubtless
refers back in this case to the character su (copies), and should
therefore be translated OTHER COPIES (of the horses). A free
translation of the above passage should read as follows: “I also
had other (copies) made, outline pictures (which were then)
engraved on stone and placed under the cloister (roof), in order
to spread widely (the fame) of those (which had been) handed
down.” With due respect to the authorities mentioned there does
not seem to be here proof that there was a set of tablets in minia-
ture, or even a set of tablets. What monument, other than the set
of big copies, did Yu have erected at this time? What object had
pictures engraved on it which would add to the fame of these
horses ? Doubtless the stele itself. Below the inscription is another
set of the horses, in outline pictures engraved on stone. Moreover,
this was set up in T £ ai Tsung’ s Miao, where Chang Ch‘ao saw it in
1611, with the Chao Ling Map Stele, erected by Yu four years
later, standing opposite it. And so I am inclined to doubt the
existence of any third set of tablets, whether in miniature or not,
and to consider that the text which has been commonly thought to
The Horses of T‘ang T‘ai Tsung and the Stele of Yu 427
refer to them refers rather to the engravings on the stele below the
text ; that is, to the stele of Yu Shih-hsiung itself.
A note must be added on the drawings of the horses which appear
on this stele. It is evident that they have not been drawn by a
master. Yu says in his inscription above that he had seen the
painting of the horses said to be by the brush of Yen Li-pen. It is
possible that we have here a reflection of that painting, for the pic-
tures, although following the designs of the tablets, do not suggest
the monumental quality of the slabs of the Chao Ling, but seem to
point to a pictorial ancestor. This is, however, supposition. In the
lower left corner of the stele may be seen a signature. It reads
“Wu Tsung-tao engraved (it).” Vu Tsung-tao was a famous
artist who is supposed to have flourished about 1010 and was already
a noted painter at that time. He must have been a very old man if
he cut these pictures in 1089. Or, the evidence of this tablet may
prove to be earlier and more reliable than sources which have been
used hitherto in dating this artist. But that is another problem.
Finally, may I call attention to two points in regard to the great
tablets of the horses. First, they were certainly not in their
original positions when Chavannes photographed them. Their
positions in 1089 are definitely established by the labels on Yu’s
stele. “ Autumn Dew,” “ Curly ” and “ White-Footed Crow ”
were then all on the west side. When Chavannes saw them they
were on the east and the other three were on the west. 9 In addition,
“ Blue Piebald ” and “ Shih-Destroying-Bed ” had changed places.
Additional evidence that they were not in original position when
Chavannes saw them is the fact that the left end of the slab pic-
turing “ Autumn Dew ” was pushed up against the corner of the
brick building so that it was completely hidden and covered by the
wall (Fig. 3). It is to this fact, however, that we owe the preserva-
tion of a beautiful and typical T‘ang design in flat relief, which
ornaments that end of the slab (Fig. 9a). The presence of such
a design means that this end of the tablet was intended to be seen
and that, therefore, the tablet must originally have been placed in
a different position, so that it would show. The narrow design
(Fig. 9b) is from the face of the tablet in the lower left comer and
is the only remaining portion of a delicate pattern in flat relief
which decorated the raised border around the horse.
See Mission Archeologique, PI. CCLVII, No. 439.
438
Helen E. Femald
The second point, which I hope to enlarge upon some other time,
is that originally the tablets were almost certainly painted. When
I first began to study them about ten years ago, there were then
definite traces of paint on the two in the museum, and I have some
evidence which suggests that the poems composed by Tai Tsung
were put on the squares intended for them — put on in paint, over
characters cut in as low relief as this delicate border design.
Plate I
Plate II
Plate III
Fig. •>. So-calletl "laige rubbing " of the Horse "Autumn Dew." with the
(ienei.il drill Hsing-kinig.
From Ferguson Eastern Art , vol III
Plate V
Liy. 8. A Detail nt the Mele of Yu containing that ]>ait of the InM-ripthm
relating to the picture-, inched on -.tone.
Knbbiti" | inten'ified) of the low relief remaining on the left end of tl
'tune 'lab ot ••Autumn Dew."
b. Rubbing (inten'ified) Of the border design on the frame of "Autnm
Den. trace of winch remain, i„ lower left corner of the slab.
NEW NUZI TEXTS AND A NEW METHOD OF COPYING
CUNEIFOKM TABLETS
E. R. Lacheiiait
Auburn; r. i.
( with 6 plates)
When" De. S. N. Krajier was preparing the publication of the
Sumerian Hymns and Epics which the late Dr. Chiera had copied,
he asked me to copy the reverse of one tablet, the text of which had
been left out. At the suggestion of Professor A. Poebel I used an
enlarged photograph of the tablet in question, tracing the signs on
it; the photograph was then bleached so that the signs stood out.
This gave me the idea of employing the same method in copying
the Nuzi tablets of the Harvard Semitic Museum as well as the
remaining unpublished Nuzi material which the American School
of Oriental Eesearch in Baghdad had loaned to the Oriental Insti-
tute of the University of Chicago. The method of “ inking photo-
graphs ” is not new in itself, having been used with marked success
in the field of Egyptology; but no one had applied the process, so
far as I know, to cuneiform texts. In this field one may speak of
various “schools of copyists.” While all aim at a faithful repro-
duction of the signs, the degree of accuracy depends largely on
the copyist’s drawing ability and on the sharpness of his eye. More-
over, few attempt to show the shape of the tablet and the exact
position of the signs, not to speak of cracks and breaks. There
have been notable exceptions, but the time and trouble required
have caused many to resort to more or less conventionalized
copies. They might thus succeed in making the reading easier, but
they overlook the important fact that publications of ancient texts
should present the material as it actually is.
Photography alone, however, cannot be sufficient. Most tablets
are curved and the writing goes over to the reverse, and no photo-
graph, however excellent, can give the whole text at a glance. Com-
posite photographs are often necessary and the prints must be given
special treatment.
The method that I have followed consists, briefly, in taking a
good photograph of the tablet, making an enlargement of it, tracing
1 Oriental Institute Publications XV.
429
430
E. R. Lacheman
the signs on the print, and bleaching it until the signs alone
remain. My equipment includes a double-extension, 9 by 12 cm.
Eoyal camera, supplied with a double anastigmat, helioplan lense,
1 : 4.5, F 13.5 cm., set on a special stand. The tablet is placed on
a glass plate resting on two horizontal rods which are about two
feet apart and one foot from the ground. A white sheet of earboard
is placed on the floor under the plate. In this way the shadows
cast by the tablet are carried off the field and a white background
is provided for the photograph. The light is at about three feet
and at 45 degrees from the upper left-hand corner of the tablet.
The angle of the light will depend largely on the curvature of the
tablet. In order to give even light to the edges of the tablet
adjusted mirrors are used. With a 100 watt bulb, the shutter closed
down to F 12.5, on an Eastman Commercial cut film, the average
exposure is 35 seconds; more if the tablet is dark and less if it is of
a light color.
The photographs are then enlarged to twice the linear size of
the tablet. When the cut is made for final reproduction, it is
reduced (as in the present instance) to one-half of the photograph,
so that the true size of the characters is indicated. 2 When the
writing goes over the edge to the reverse, the signs are traced on
the photograph of the right edge and on a duplicate of the reverse,
and after bleaching each line is cut off separately and glued in
place on the obverse.
After the signs have been copied the print is bleached in the
potassium iodide-iodine bleacher and fixed in hyposulphite. 3
The texts discussed below have been reproduced by the above
method. 4
After the death of Dr. Chiera I undertook to copy the remaining
Niizi tablets discovered during the first campaign, which Dr. Chiera
* After two y ear s of experimenting I have found that Gevaert Novabrom
No. 1 (dead matte) extra-vigorous paper is best suited for enlarging. It
gives very good contrasts and absorbs the ink easily.
I wish to take this opportunity to express my deepest gratitude to
P. M. Bardin and H. P. Burtsch, preparators at the Oriental Institute,
for their invaluable technical advice.
4 The photographs of Text Mo. 4 (see below) were taken by Mr. L. W.
Hough, staff photographer of the Oriental Institute, to whom and to Dr.
Boyes, Secretary of the Museum, I hereby express my thanks.
New Nuzi Texts
431
had brought with him to Chicago on loan from the Baghdad
School. 5 Three of these tests are presented below. The new texts
are numbered respectively JENu 1023 (1), 921 (2), and 4 (3).
While engaged in this task I found a number of undeciphered
fragments which I was able, with the aid of the Assyrian Dic-
tionary, to fit on to texts previously copied. As an example of
this latter group I have included in the present article a restored
text (4) consisting of JENu 630 -f- JEN 363 -j- an unnumbered
fragment.
Text 1 is a slavery document concerning two Habiru women
from the land of Akkad. “ Of their own free will ” they enter the
house of Tehiptilla. Their (previous) owner, Dur-Ilishu, is re-
sponsible for them. The price set for them is forty shekels (SU). 6 * 8
The colophon states that “ if the women break the contract and say,
‘ We are not slavewomen,’ they shall pay a certain amount of gold
as fine.”
Text 2 is a lawsuit between Huite and Naniya, arising from an
earlier mortgage (titennutu) . Of particular interest is the men-
tion of the maiaru-fteld in an actual context instead of the usual
stereotyped clause. Huite is declared winner and awarded the field
with its newly planted seeds.
Text 3 concerns the same Huite and deals with a certain field
twice mortgaged. The document refers to the same parties as
JEN 491, and both tablets correspond in shape and share the same
scribe.
The measurements of the texts published below are as follows:
1 (unbaked) — 98x70x31 mm. 2 (unbaked) — 83x65x30 mm.
3 (baked) — 77 x 62 x 31 mm. 4 (unbaked) — 110 x 66 x 33 mm.
6 The unpublished texts are cited as JENu, those previously published
( Joined Expedition at Nuzi , vols. I-V) as JEN.
•Two unpublished tablets in the Harvard Semitic Museum give the
important equation of iiqlu with SU.
OBVERSE
Plate III
REVERSE
Plate IV
Plate V
r >S$L rt
Wr fer't - ■ **4
10
T. ..
P^=
W ^ri?
>£r~
15
&5feSr^/
^4T ><
20
LEFT
EDGE
Plate YI
REVERSE
UPPER
EDGE
NOTES TO RECENTLY PUBLISHED NUZI TEXTS
E. A. Speisek
University of Pennsylvania
It has justly been remarked that no site in Western Asia com-
pares with ancient Nuzi in the wealth and variety of legal material
preserved in private family archives . 1 The importance of the Nuzi
records for the study of the legal practices, the social and economic
conditions, and the cultural background of this out-of-the-way dis-
trict in the East- Tigris area is self-evident and not unexpected.
But local considerations barely begin to reflect the full significance
of these documents. Composed in a Hurrian settlement, they shed
brilliant light on the life of a group whose amazing record of
migrations throughout the length and breadth of the Near East
has contributed, within the last decade or so, a fascinating chapter
to the history of the second millennium b. c. 2 Nuzi was thus an
interested witness of the Amarna age; by reason of its eccentric
location it was also, fortunately, a reasonably objective one. Its
documents allow us to judge the impact of the civilizations of
Babylon and of Ashur upon the heterogeneous traditions of the
recently settled Hurrians . 3 The original background of these new-
comers is thereby brought into sharper relief. We note the ever-
recurring reminders of the westward orientation of the Hurrians,
and the biblical parallels, whose number is constantly increasing,
now find a ready historical explanation . 4 Finally, an extremely
valuable feature of the Nuzi documents is the wealth of their
onomastic material. We have here a larger group of personal
1 Cf- Koschaker, Keilschriftrecht 6 f . (reprinted from ZDMG 89).
1 For the older literature on the subject cf. Annual Amer. Sch. Or. Res.
( AASOR ) VI. 75 ff.; Gadd, Tablets from Kirkuk, RA XXIII. 49-161
(abbr. Gadd) ; Koschaker, Neue Keilschriftliche Rechtsurkunden aus der
el-Amarna-Zeit ( XKRA ) . Further references will be found in Journal
52. 350. n. 1 and RA XXXI. 54. n. 1. The texts are cited as follows:
JEN— Chiera, Joint Expedition at Nuzi (5 vols.) ; HSS— Harvard Semitic
Series (\ by Chiera, IX by Pfeiffer, and X by Meek). Other titles are
given in full.
5 For the problem of the Hurrians see AASOR XIII. 13 ff. (= Speiser,
Ethnic Movements in the Near East, ASOR Offprint Series 1).
* Ibid. 44, and Gordon, Revue Biblique 1935. 1 ff. Gordon’s first example
(p. 2) is anticipated in AASOR XIII. 44 .
432
Notes to Recently Published Nuzi Texts 433
names of both the Hurrians and the Habiru 5 than has been con-
tributed by all the other ancient sites put together, although Nuzi
lay far from the center of either group. This welcome surprise
must be ascribed to accidents of discovery.
The study of the Nuzi texts (including a number from the city
of Arrapha) may be said to have begun in the year 1926,® for prior
to that date only a few scattered specimens of this family had been
made known. So young a discipline will naturally teem with
unsolved problems. For answers we must look to further publica-
tions. The total number of documents unearthed runs into several
thousands, but until last year only some 600 of these had been
published. A year ago the American School of Oriental Research
in Baghdad brought out two further volumes of the texts which the
late Dr. Chiera had dug up in 1925. 7 Copied by the discoverer and
prepared for publication by Drs. Gelb and Lacheman, these new
texts constitute Nos. 321-559 of the yield of Chiera’s initial cam-
paign. Three additional documents from the same collection are
presented by Dr. Lacheman in the current issue of the Jouhnal
together with a republished and supplemented older text (JEN
363).® Lastly, Dr. Meek has just contributed to the Harvard
Semitic Series a volume of texts from the same site, consisting of
231 splendidly autographed documents accompanied by a valuable
introduction and indices of proper names. 9 The total number of
published Nuzi texts is thus now well over a thousand. But with
one clear exception (No. 231) Meek's texts do not come from the
Human level at Nuzi. Dug up for the most part during the season
1930-31, they represent older strata, the majority coming from the
Old Akkadian occupation at which time the city bore the name of
Gasur. 10 Since the present notes are concerned with the output of
the Hurrian period, I shall confine my remarks to the material of
Chiera and Lacheman and the last document in Meek’s work.
Obviously, only a few topics can be touched upon in this general
survey. My principal object is to indicate a few of the many
aspects on which the new texts throw fresh light. I shall begin
* For the latter see Chiera, AJSL XLIX. 115 ff.
* Gadd, op. cif., and Contenau, Babyloniaca IX. Nos. 2-4.
7 JEN IV- V, Philadelphia, 1934.
* See above, pp. 429-31.
* HSS X, Harvard University Press, 1935.
10 Ibid. p. x.
434
E. A. Speiser
with Laeheman’s Text 1, which is sufficiently important to he given
in transliteration and translation. 11
(1) Wlstar^-a-ha-at u (2) 2 awelatiP 12 an-nu-tui
Ha-bi-ru-u (3) sa m&t Aq-qa-ti-i it ra-ma-an-su-nu-ma (4) a-na
a-mu-ti i-na bit J T e-hi-ip-til-la (5) us-te-ri-ib-su-nu it 1 * l)ur-
ili-su (6) su-ur-su-nu sa a-we-la-ti sum-ma (7) awelatiP 1 tl pa-qi-
ra-na ir-ta-su-u (8) u I Bur-ili-suu-za-dk-lca i -su-nu-ti-ma (9) it a-na
*T e-hi-ip-til-la i-na-an- di-in (10) it *T e-hi-ip-iil-la JfO STJ kaspa
(11) Tci-ma e-wu-ru-ti-su it-ta-di-in (12) sum-ma 1 Dur-ili-su
ibbalkat 3 -ma it (13) i-ir-ri-is it 10 MA.NA hurasa (14) a-na
2 T e-hi-ip-til-la u-ma-al-la (there follows a list of 19 witnesses — 34)
IGI ! Ta-a-a mar Apil- d Sin tupsar-ri (35) aban kunuJc 1 Dur-ili-su -*
awelati iddin nu (11. 36-39 contain other seals — 40) sum-ma
awelatiP 1 ibbalkatu 3 it i-qa-ab-bu-u (41) la GlM -nu-mi it u-su-ru-u
(42) MA.NA hurasa u-ma-al-lu-u
1 U. " SAL . MES, cf. 1. 6. a KI.BAL. 4 The sign may have been Su
(=&!), or Sa, perhaps the latter in view of the final vowel of iddinu.
(Translation:) Ishtar-ahat and Ahatiya, these two Habiru
women from the land of Akkad, now themselves for slavery into
the house of Tehip-Tilla (5) they have caused to enter. And
Dur-ilishu is the su-ru of the women. Given that the women have
a claimant, then Dur-ilishu shall clear them and furnish them to
Tehip-Tilla. (10) And Tehip-Tilla 40 shekels of silver as his
ewurutu has paid. Given that Dur-ilishu breaks the agreement
and demands (them back), then ten minas of gold to Tehip-Tilla
he shall pay as fine. (List of 19 witnesses and scribe — 35) Seal
of Dur-ilishu who the women has sold. (Other seals — 40) Given
that the women break the contract and say, “We are not slave-
women, a tenfold mma of gold they shall pay as fine.
The text is of unusual interest for a number of reasons. It pre-
sents several philological peculiarities and two hapax legomena.
Its chief claim upon our attention rests, however, upon its illustra-
tive value as regards the status of the Habiru. This fact was
recognized by Chiera who excerpted the above text in his article on
the Habiru and the Hebrews.” 12 The publication of the docu-
1 Thureau-Dangin’s system (Le Syllabaire Accadien ) is employed below
except in the case of proper names where the primary value of each sign
has been used in order not to prejudge the issues involved.
13 AJSL XLIX. 119 f.
Notes to Recently Published Nuzi Texts
435
ment enables us now to check Chiera’s conclusions and to modify
his original interpretation. But before this is attempted, a few
philological notes will be in order.
L. 2. The application of the term aicelati (spelled out in 1. 6) to slave-
women is rather startling. But the scribe betrays his inadequate knowl-
edge of Akkadian idiom in other instances as well ; cf., e. g., his use of
the masculine pi. form Ha-bi-ru-fi instead of the correct feminine form of
the ethnicon, which is found in JEN 453. 11.
L. 6. For su-ur-su-nu (and e-uiu-ru-ti-su, 1. 11) see below.
L. 10. For the equation of SU with Siqlu see above, p. 430 n. 6.
b. 13. For i-ir-n-is (not i-ni-ri-iS as indicated by Chiera, AJSL XLIX.
120) in the sense of demanding the return of lost property cf., e. g., JEN
530. 10.
L. 14. The translation of umalla, “ shall pay as fine ” is based on the
value of mullu “ fine,” which is normal in these tests.
L. 41. GIM-rcu stands apparently for amtdnu, which may be termed a
pseudo-permansive. The form u-su-ru-u is based clearly on the adjectival
type quttulu, with the final vowel lengthened as in esru. The same fine is
specified in 1. 13, where the amount is indicated ideographically. This
particular value for 10 is new.
But the key words for the proper understanding of the text are
su-ur-su-nu (1. 6) and Jci-ma e-wu-ru-ti-su (1. 11). Although the
women are said to have entered of their own will, Dur-ilishu is paid
on their account 40 shekels of silver for his eivurutu, and he is
entitled to the payment by reason of being their su-ru. This latter
word is taken by Chiera (op. cit. 119) to mean “owner/' though
the appended question mark admits this translation to be a guess.
It would be idle to speculate on which of the several values appli-
cable to this form (which could be connected with sum, sum, or
su’ru) would be most suitable in the present context. The safest
method is to proceed from the internal evidence of the document
itself, and the clue must be sought therefore in ewurutu.
That ewuru signifies “ heir ” was first suggested by Koschaker. 13
Since that suggestion was made (1928) the number of references
has increased considerably and a closer study of the term is possible.
The basic form (ewuru) is found in Gadd 5. 50, 333. 74, 76
(in the latter instance miswritten ta-as-ru), 1 * 392. 14, and HSS V.
60.10. The phrase ewurumma eppus (itepm) “shall become
ewuru ” (note the intransitive use of the verb!) is found in Gadd
ls NKRA 14 f.
11 Ibid. 15 (pointed out by Landsberger ) .
436
E. A. Speiser
51. 9, JEN 513. 7, and HSS V. 67. 15. In all passages where suffi-
cient data are available the term is applied to adopted sons, with
the single exception of JEN 392 where the party in question is the
ewuru of his elder brother. Particularly illuminating is HSS V.
67. 8 If. : “ Given that there is a son (by marriage) of Shurihil
(the testator and adoptive parent in this case), he shall be the
principal son (tabu) and shall receive a double share; in that case
( it ) Shennima (the person adopted) shall be next in order
(terdennu) , 15 according to his (proper secondary) share (lei sepi- in
su-ma) he shall inherit. . . . When Shurihil dies, Shennima shall
become ewuru.” It would appear, then, that ewuru is applied to
specifically designated heirs rather than to direct heirs; hence the
term may be used for adopted children, and for next of kin
(brother, JEN 392) ; presumably it could also be applied to special
grants made by a father to his daughters. 17
The abstract noun ewurutu, which occurs in our text for the first
time, can mean nothing else than eamru-rights. Dur-ilishu cedes
these rights to Tehip-Tilla for the sum of forty shekels. His claim
to such authority is based on his being the su-ru of the women.
11 On this term see now Koschaker, Fratriarchat, Hausgemeischaft u nd
Mutterrecht in Keilschriftrechten 35 ff. (reprinted from ZA NT. VII).
” My previous reading of the ideogram GIR as emuqu (instead of iepu,
cf. AASOR X. 2. line 11) has proved to he erroneous.
11 For this latter possibility there is no illustration in the Nuzi docu-
ments, but there may be one in the Hittite texts. The decision hinges on
the interpretation of the Hittite legal institution called iwaru. The mean-
ings established for this term are “ share of father’s estate given in his
lifetime” (Sturtevant, Eittite Glossary 30), “dowry” (Hid. 82), and
in general “ inherited feudal property ” ( Gotze, Kleinasien 97, where the
full literature is cited). The basic connection between the iwaru-institu-
tion and the Nuzi system of land tenure is recognized by Gotze (Joe. cit.).
But now that we have been able to narrow down the meaning of ewuru
to something like “ heir by decree ” as contrasted with “ direct, automatic
heir,” the possibility of an etymological connection between the Hittite
and Nuzi terms is worth considering. To be sure, there is the difference
in the respective medial vowels. The interchange of a and u, however, is
not new at Nuzi; see below (p. 442) for Zi-la-ka-pi/Zi-la-gu-pi, and note,
e * Nuzi Kuisu-hai and Babylonian KaSSi, More probable would be the
assumption that the difference is morphological. For whereas iwaru is
the object, ewuru is the subject of the institution in question. Bearing
in mind this fundamental distinction, the Hittite denominative iwdruwd(i)
“give an iwaru” (cf. Friedrich, ZA NF. 2. 48. n. 1, and Sturtevant, op.
cit. 30) may be contrasted tentatively with Nuzian ewurumma tpesu.
Notes to Recently Published Nuzi Texts
437
This term can now be interpreted as “ next of kin,” normalized as
su’ru, and equated with seru in the sense of Hebrew s’er “ kinsman,
kinswoman ” (cf. Lev. 18 : 12, 20 : 19). The name Dur-ilishu, good
Semitic (“Akkadian,” cf. 1. 3) like that of the two women, helps
to confirm this identification.
As to the actual status of the Habiru as implied in this docu-
ment, two points receive a certain amount of illumination. In the
first place, the payment involved is one-half of the average price
for a bride and two-thirds of the usual amount paid for slaves in an
ordinary transaction. This lower rate must be somehow inter-
connected with the other feature of the contract, the so-called self-
enslavement. It is plain, of course, that the phrase ramunsunu-ma
usteribsunu cannot be taken in its strict literal meaning. It has a
bearing on the ultimate status of the “ enterers ” after the comple-
tion of the transaction rather than on their frame of mind prior
to it. But a more precise definition of the underlying legal matters
will have to await the decision of a jurist.
Before we leave this valuable document, attention may be called
to a term which resembles in sound the ewuru discussed above.
Among the recently published alphabetic texts from Bas Shamra
there is a letter of one ’wr-zr, which has attracted much notice and
has led to considerable discussion. 18 With the controversial prob-
lems of interpretation we are not concerned at present. What
matters just now is the name of the writer, first read ’Ur-shar, but
subsequently found by several scholars to be Hurrian; the first
element is now commonly read Ewiri-. That this Hurrian word
has nothing to do with our ewuru is plain from the fact that the
former has the value EN “ master, king.” 19 The point that I wish
to make is that the middle vowel of e-wi-ri is inorganic, the correct
form being ewri. To be sure, the full name is once spelled out
E-wi-ri-sar-ri. 20 By its side we have, however, ib-ri 21 as a name
element in the Tunip letter, and independently in the letter of
Tushratta. 22 Moreover, the same word is common in the Nuzi
dialect as irwi, particularly in the name of Irwi-sarri, an exact
1 * Published by Dhorme in Syria XIV. 235 ff. and discussed in particular
by Ginsberg and Maisler, Journal Pal. Or. Soc. 1934. 243 ff., and ibid.
1935. 181 ff. Cf. also Albright, BASOR 54. 26; Thureau-Dangin, Syria
XII. 254; Montgomery, Joubnal 55. 94; Harris, ibid. 95 ff.
14 Cf. Syria XI. 313. 44. 10 Ibid. ** Knudtzon, Amarna 17. 47.
“ Vorderasiatische Schriftdenkmdler XII. 2. No. 200. IV. 127 (p. 55).
438
E. A. Speiser
counterpart of the above Eas Shamra name except for the meta-
thesis of w and r. 23 Now it is the very fact of this metathesis that
precludes the existence of an intervening vowel. Apart from this
transposition, the disparity between ewiri and irwi must be graphic
and not phonetic; it is due to the shortcomings of the cuneiform
syllabary which was equipped to represent irwi, but not ewri. To
express the latter it was necessary to resort to writings like ib-ri,
or else e-wi-ri, with the medial vowel understood as silent. When
we find a form like e-wi-ir-ni, the r is obviously syllabic ( ewrni )P
The transcription of the western form (Eas Shamra, Tushratta
letter, Boghazkoi) 24 should be therefore ewri, the eastern (Nuzi)
i/erwi. The latter is, of course, in no danger of being confused
with ewuru, owing to metathesis of the posteonsonantal liquid in
this particular dialect.
Turning now from Lacheman’s texts to the two handsome vol-
umes from the matchless hand of Chiera, we note first the difference
in the reproduction of the characters. Lacheman’s copies are
properly tracings, giving an absolutely faithful picture of the
originals, including seal impressions, the precise location of the
breaks, and the like. Chiera’s autographs are, on the other hand,
inevitably conventionalized to a certain extent. One cannot imitate
very well the calligraphy of scores of scribes. When the copyist is
as reliable as Chiera was, there is little danger of wrong readings.
But only tracings will reproduce all the graphic mannerisms of
numerous scribes. In the last analysis it becomes a question of cost.
When inked photographs can be afforded they are to be preferred
to autographed copies.
With the exception of a few mdrutu fill-ups (JEN 400 ff.) the
entire fourth volume of JEN is given up to proceedings in court.
The value of these texts for our knowledge of East Human legal
procedure cannot be overestimated. From this long series of actual
cases it is possible to reconstruct a considerable portion of the
underlying law code and to obtain a reasonably complete picture of
the basic legal machinery. While a full discussion will doubtless be
23 Speiser, Mesopotamian Origins 145. n. 90.
[ I3 *See now Friedrich. Analecta Orientalia 12 (Festschrift Deimel) 124,
who also regards the r as syllabic.]
“ Cf. now Brandenstein, Keilschrifturkunden aus Boghazkoi (KUB)
XXVII. 38. IY. 13 [and add Friedrich, loc. eit.].
Notes to Recently Published Nuzi Texts
439
forthcoming from Koschaker and his able disciples, a few gleanings
may be presented in this rapid survey.
JEN 333, to which I have had occasion to refer above, is a re-
markably lucid account of a lengthy law-suit. A tentative transla-
tion of this text was given by Chiera and myself eight years ago
(Joubnal 47. 50 if.), which was subsequently modified and cor-
rected by Koschaker and Landsberger. 25 The publication of the
text itself makes possible further corrections and additions. In line
38, end, the reader will reconstruct si-mu- \_m a] -hi “of the will.”
In line 76 the ta of ta-as-ru should be provided with a sic !, for the
reading is clearly e-wu-ru, as was first suggested by Landsberger. 26
For the present I wish to draw attention to the phrase [la] bel zitti
la bel pu-u-ri u la m[i]-im-ma a-na-ku-mi “I am not owner by
inheritance, nor owner by lot, nor anything” (11. 12-13). The
witness conveys in this quaint manner that he cannot be the proper
defendant in this suit about a certain piece of land, having acted
merely for a third party who claims to be the real owner. The
phrase throws some light on the question of land tenure not only
in Nuzi, but also in Canaan. Possession of land could be obtained
through zittu (inheritance share), puru (lot), or by other means
such as mortgage , etc. (mi mm a “anything”). According to the
Middle Assyrian law zittu was the preferred share of the eldest son,
while the remaining shares were divided by lot (puru). 27 Whether
the same practices obtained in Nuzi is doubtful, but allotment
played an important part in any case. This helps to illustrate the
biblical use of ^BJ “ fall ” (i. e. “ by lot,” usually with H'i’nJ
“share”) 28 when taking possession of land is indicated. The
™NKRA 15, 75 f. M Ibid. 15.
17 Keilschrifttexte aus Assur verschiedenen Inhalts (KAY) 2. II. 14. For
puru cf. NKRA 25. n. 3, and Driver and Miles, The Assyrian Laws 497,
601 f.
38 Cf. Judges 18: 1; Psalms 16: 6, and in the causative with “lot.”
Closer connection with the Middle Assyrian laws may be indicated in
two Nuzi passages. In JEN 196. 8 f . a field is granted ana GI. GAG. TAG.
GA S Vispati “as arrows of the quiver” (cf. Koschaker, OLZ 1932. 405),
and in JEN 519. 6-7 we have GI . MES . GAG . TAG . GA ina libbibi is( !)pati
[both times with the verb nadd “ cast,” as recognized by my student. Mr.
M. Berkooz], It would appear that we have here the mechanics of the
puru usage: it was based on the fall of the arrows from the quiver (cf.
Psalms 16: 6 for a figure of speech based on this practice). Now this
type of inheritance is clearly the part (qatu, sepu) of the terdennu (mdru
440
E. A. Speiser
originally inalienable land could be obtained through inheritance
as a preferential share, or by lot, and the phraseology which re-
flected this system was retained even after the system itself had
been modified.
From the marginal notes to these texts the following few may be
selected. JEN 321. 14-15 contains the phrase kunukkesunu girriru
“ their seals have been rolled cf. also ibid. 330. 13, and HSS IX.
108. 6 (where the final KU should he changed to ru) . JEN 330. 7
mentions the place-name Tur-za-zi, which reappears as Du-ur-za-
an-zi in 339. 3. It is interesting that the same name is found in
Meek’s Old Akkadian texts in precisely the same two forms (Dur-
zazi, HSS X. 155. II. 2 and Dur-zanzi, ibid. 111. 4). But whether
this locality, which lay in the immediate vicinity of Nuzi (cf. JEN
330. 6-7), is to be identified with the city of Tursha/n, as Albright
seems to imply ( BASOR . 59. 9), is extremely uncertain. The latter
name is in all probability Hurrian (cf. the personal names Turari,
Tursheni, Turshiya). In JEN 331. 13 correct t-na-afc-mt to i-la-
ak-mi. The meaning of the passage is that “ whenever ( immatime
with present tense) G. attempted to go to the gods (take the oath)
M. would seize him (in order to prevent him).” JEN 335 is one
of several texts recording suits over animals which had died as a
result of an act described by ul-te-ib-bir, 1. 9; cf. u-se(!)-bi-ir, 341.
7 ( alpa tappasu) , M-se-i"6-6i[-tV], 349. 6, et al. This verb is obviously
a cognate of Heb. “lit? used in Ex. 22 : 9, 13 (cf. also Ezek. 34:4)
in the technical sense of inflicting injury upon animals ; the parallel
between our ultebbirsu u imtut (11. 9-10, or, better still, between
it-ti-ib-bi-ir-mi (for istebir-mi) u mi-it-mi (11. 19-20) and the
biblical HD IX Ex. 34 : 13, could scarcely be more complete.
JEN 343 (among others) shows that the penalty for theft was
twelve times the property involved. In a similar case (ibid. 347)
the zillikuhlu officials testify ( sirumma itepsu, cf. 385. 20) against
the suspect, who is obliged to take an oath ( ildni nasu) with regard
sihru) or eicuru, as opposed to the preferred share of the mdru rabu. We
obtain thus a clue to the obscure passage in KAV 2. IV. 11 ff. (for
previous interpretations cf. Driver and Miles, op. cit. 302 ff., 501 f.). The
tahumu TUB. Id purdni (}1. 20 f.) is the secondary share selected by lot,
while the tahtimu GAL is the zittu of the mdru rabu. The encroachment
on a neighbor’s (Id tappa’Uu) bounded property ( tahumu ) that represents
is pre erred share (GAL) draws, therefore, a heavier fine than tresspass
on an allotted share (Id p&rdni).
Notes to Recently Published Nuzi Texts
441
to or against (ana ) 29 this testimony. The interesting colophon
states that the case was appealed to the king, which meant an
additional cost of one ox, the usual charge for such appeals.
JEN 353.26 contains the barbarous TJD. MI pl -ti, for umdti
“ days.” Such heterogeneous (Sumerian and Akkadian) ideograms
with phonetic complements in the vernacular are intelligible enough
in Hittite, but out of place in Nuzi, where the written language
was, after all, a dialect of Akkadian. Ibid. 312. 4 admirably sup-
ports the view of Landsberger that kurustu is fodder for fattening
animals. 30 The phrase reads: se'dtiP lsi sa UDU pl ku-ru-us-ta-e
“ barley for fattening sheep ef. also HSS IX. 50. 10, 25. 5, both
of which Landsberger overlooked. In passages like JEN 384. 5
hararnu interchanges with the more usual kumanu (e. g., No.
401.6) as a subdivision of the aweharu ( epinnu ) measure. In
Middle Assyrian texts, on the other hand, kumanu seems to take
the place of epinnu ; 32 the discrepancy would disappear if mala
kumanu in the Nuzi texts merely indicated something like “full
measure.” In JEN 404 ina migratisu (1. 2) “with his consent”
is unusual for a mdrufu-document.
JEN V is considerably varied in contents. In addition to the
Habiru texts, those bearing on family laws (Nos. 428-41) are of
particular interest. The very first one may be taken as a sample,
even though its fragmentary condition necessitates a certain amount
of restoration. LI. 6 ff. read: ii f S. a-na [ as-su-ti ] a-na mari-su
i-na-an-di-[in] has- di-in 33 f S.a-na-aweli sa DUMU.DtT ( ewurumma
ippus, or sa ana mdruti sa ipsu, cf. ibid. 432. 9) i-na[-an-di-in)
20 The use of ana in this connection goes back to the Hammurabi Code
Eev. VI. 4 ( ana muttia). But the usual translation of the phrase “for
the sake of her husband ” is not adequate in the light of the present
occurrences. The force is rather that of Latin coram.
*° Archiv fur Orientforschung ( AfO ) X. 149.
11 So of course and not se'uti as maintained by Gordon, Museon XLVTII.
118, on the basis of HSS IX. 144. 20, where we should read U-ti “ balance
payment” in supe'ultu transactions (=ipliti1) , which is so frequent in
the Nuzi texts.
** Cf. Keilschrifttexte aus Assur juristischen Inhalts (KAJ) 149.2: S
iku 1 ku-ma-ni 8 GIRp 1 eqla.
“ This form interchanges with haMh/haihu. The final « is unusual.
Does it reflect the changed pitch which is to be presupposed in sentences
of this kind, i. e., hadl “ and if it please her ”? Cf. the fem. form ha-ta-ta,
JEN 465. 10.
442
E. A. Speiser
u la arna as-su-ti a-na aweli < na-lca-riy i-na-an-din “ And the
woman §. as wife to her son she may give (and), if it please her,
to one adopted she may give; to a stranger she shall not give
(her).” In JEN 434. 9-10 su-u-mu sa aweli sa-a-ni-i [i ]-qa-al-bi
“ speak the name of another man ” is an interesting paraphrase of
“ live in the house of another man.” Ibid. 438. 4 : sa-la-as-su-
um-ma i-pu-su “ forfeit ” brings up once more the question of the
etymology of sa(la)ssu-ma; the correspondence of sal(a)su with
sassu suggests strongly the Akkadian word for “ three.”
One could bring up many other points and problems, 34 but space
does not allow such luxury. In conclusion, I wish to cite a few
samples of the onomastic material. The names Ilt-hi-ip-Nu-zu
(ibid. 505. 5) and A-ri-ip-Hur-ra (No. 50 6. 1) permit the identifi-
cation of Nuzu and Hurra as deities. The ideograms X MAR . TU . KU
(ibid. 357.21) can he deciphered without much difficulty as
Amurris-takal. 35 SES-m (ibid. 333. 88) is probably Senni-ia. But
we do not have always such smooth sailing. In JEN 477. 29
Du-us-ma-na strikes one as an Indo-Iranian name, for all that the
father bears the typically Hurrian name of Tehit-Teshup. We have
the same problem with Tu-us-ma-na, son of Tu-ri-ki-tar 36 (JEN
89. 18). But on finding that Tehit-Teshup appears in JEN 85. 34
as the father of Du-um-si-ma~na, the two being clearly the same as
the above pair, we are constrained to give up all thoughts as to the
possible non-Hurrian origin of Dus-mana. And yet, Du-u(m)-si-
ma-na is a not impossible writing for the former. What I am
driving at is that Hurrian names appear in these texts in many
and wondrous disguises. How seriously should one take the
ideographically written names? At first glance (DINGIR)UTU-n
(son of Zi-la-gu-bi, JEN 68. 29) looks like Simika-ri 36 “ ; but Sa-ma-
a ^"BI son of Zi-la-ku-bi (JEN 212. 28) forces us to normalize the
34 Xote, e. g., ki-ir-pa-an-su eh-te-pu "I disinherit him,” JEN 478.4-5.
Cf. ASSOR X. 10. The phrase refers evidently to some symbolic act which
consists in the breaking of an earthen vessel.
Cf. Lewy, ZA XF. I. 148 ff., von Soden, ibid., VII. 104, and for the
related IliS-takal, Meek. HSS X. 10. 7.
34 Here hal is an obvious error for tar.
For Simigi -f- art, though it is of course problematical whether the
verb would appear in this bare form. This purely hypothetical equivalence
is mentioned merely for the sake of argument. For the equation of Simigi
with DUTU see KUB XXVII. iv, and ef. AASOR X. 4 for the writing gi
(would the k in -kari, wr. usually -qa-ri, be due to the following a?).
Notes to Recently Published Nuzi Texts
443
pair as Samas-re’u and Sil(i)-Kubi. On the other hand, there are
many scribes named Simikari (cf. e. g., JEN 87. 40, 204. 38, 311.
29, 478. 24), while a number of others bear the approximately
equivalent Sumerian name (DINGIR)UTU MA.AN.SE. Was the
latter a showy translation of the Hurrian original? Yet, in two
instances Samas-iddinam (to give the Sumerian group its Akkadian
value) has UL(DU T ) . (DINGIR)IM as father (JEN 82.25,436.
15). And as if this were not enough, UL. (DINGIR)IM is the son
of the unquestionably Hurrian Dup-ki-til-la (JEN 340. 44). The
chances are that the fanciful scribe was to his friends plain
Simikari son of Shehel-Teshup, or the like, rather than Samas-
iddinam or UTU.HANSE son of DU 7 .ISKTJR. But we cannot
be sure.
Finally, the text published by Meek in HSS X. 231 is unique
among all the records of the Hurrian period at Nuzi. As Meek
has pointed out, it differs from the contemporary documents in clay
texture, shape, size, and content . 37 The few lines that have been
preserved give (with the aid of restorations from unpublished seals)
the name of Ithi-Teshup son of Kibi-Teshup, king of Arrapha.
followed by curses against those who remove the king’s name. Adad
and Ishtar of Lubdi ( Lu-ub-tu-hi ) are invoked as protecting deities.
That the text bears unmistakable marks of western influence has
also been recognized by Meek. Of special interest is this new
instance of the Hurrian suffix -hi, with genitival or adjectival
force . 38 An extension (of non-Hurrian origin?) of this suffix is
found in Ku-us-su-ha-i (HSS Y. 37. 6 ) and mU Ku-u[s~\-su-
u[h]-ha-u (JEN 529. 69) “land of the Kassites, Babylonia.” The
evident importance of the city of Lubdi, well attested in the Nuzi
records as well as in later Assyrian times , 33 cannot escape notice.
From all indications, the discovery and excavation of the site is a
goal well worth pursuing.
3T HSS IX. xxvi. The number 230 should be changed to 231.
38 Note the change of the i in Lubdi to u before -hi (Lubdu-hi) . That
such changes do not necessarily imply a suffix -uhe instead of -he, as
maintained by Albright (A/O VI. 166), may be seen from such forms as
(URU) U-da-hi, (UR U)Ki-iz-zu-wa-at-na-hi, and (URU)So-mu-ha-hi, Syria
XII. 258 f., and now also KUB XXVII. 1. II. 38-39. All that we
may gather from instances like Lubdi/Lubduhi is that a final i changes
to u before the suffix -hi. [See now the identical conclusion of Friedrich
in Analecta Orientalia 12. 120. n. 3.]
38 On the question of the location of Lubdi see Albright, Joukxai. 45.
211 f. For a recent gentilic form see A/O X. 47 {ILu-ub-da-i-tu) .
THE MAGIC HOLLY IN JAPANESE LITERATURE
Shio Sakanishi
Library of Congress
The Japanese Eiiragi translated “holly” is properly the
Osmanthus ilicifolius , 1 and in spite of Ichiku Okamoto’s statement
that it was first transplanted from Korea during the Kyfiho era
(1716-1736), 2 holly is a native of Japan. It is widely distributed
in the main island and Shikoku, and used as a hedge plant. Its
prickly and non-prickly kinds are distinguished as “ male ” and
“ female ” holly. 3 *
Holly called hihiragi or rarely hiragi, is mentioned twice in the
Kojilci, the earliest written record of Japan, compiled in 712 A. D.
The first is in connection with the name of a deity, Eihiragi-no-
sono-hana-madzumi-no-kami .* Motoori suggests that hihiragi here
may be only a kind of “ pillow word ” for the succeeding sono-hana ,
the flowers, and the remaining part of the name is corrupted beyond
identification. 5 * Tominobu, however, suggests that the holly tree
blossoms very rarely; hence it is described as madzumi, “rarely
seen.” a Chamberlain accepts the latter interpretation and trans-
lates it: “Deity Waiting-to-see-the-Flowers-of-the-Holly .” 7
The second passage in the Kojilci refers to a holly-wood spear
eight fathoms long, which was given to Prince Yamatotake by the
Heavenly Sovereign before he was sent to subdue the East. 8 Later
upon his successful return, the said spear was presented to the great
1 Nakai, Takenoshin, Trees and Shrubs Indigenous in Japan Proper , 1927,
vol. 1, pp. 356-8.
* Kariya, Ekisai, Senchu wamyd ruiju s ho [Catalogue of Japanese names],
revised and annotated, ca. 1810, Book 20, under Trees.
s Matsuoka, Gentatsu, Homo ikka gen [Herbalist notes], ca. 1800, Book
2, under ft#- Encyclopaedia Britannica : “ In some English districts,
they are distinguished as ‘ he ’ and ‘ she ’ holly.”
* Kojiki [Records of ancient matters], vol. 2, sect. 26.
* Motoori, Norinaga, Kojiki-den [Commentary of the Kojiki], completed
in 1798; published in 1901, vol. 1, pp. 647-8.
* Hosoda, Tominobu, Jindai seigo tokiwa-gusa [Words and phrases used
in ancient times], in manuscript.
7 Chamberlain, B. H., Kojiki, 2nd ed., 1932, p. 100.
* Ibid., p. 22.
444
The Magic Holly in Japanese Literature
445
shrine in Ise. 9 Of course the story of Prince Yamatotake belongs
to the age of myth, but coming down to the historical period, we
find that in the first month of the year 702 a. d., the court architect
presented Emperor Monmu with a holly-wood spear eight fathoms
long, 10 and in the eighth month of the same year, the said spear
was sent to the shrine in Ise. 11 In the Harima fudoki, the earliest
topographical history compiled in the Wado period (708-714),
China is described as Hihiragi yashiro hokone sokotsukanu kuni,
“the country whose foundation cannot be touched even with a
holly-wood spear eight fathoms long.” 12 The term “ eight fathoms
long” is often used to give an impression of incommensurability.
Motoori supposes a spear to be a mere ornamental stick and not the
weapon with a metal point. 13 However, since the holly-wood is
described as hard and white like bones of a dog, 14 and its grain as
extremely fine, it was well fitted to be made into a weapon. Ascham
speaks of the fitness of holly for the piecing of a shaft. 15 It is
noted also that among the Maidu Indians of Butte County, Cali-
fornia, the arrow points made from the holly bush have long been
used for small game and birds. 10 In any case, judging from the
above as well as the later records, the holly-wood spear eight fathoms
long seems to have been vested with a certain magic power among
the primitive Japanese.
About the same time another holly cult was growing up in the
Imperial court. On the second day of the first month of the year
689 a. d., “the Bureau of Great Learning presented eighty
staves ” 17 to the members of the Imperial Household for the pur-
pose of driving out evil spirits. 13 The Engi-shiki 19 describes in
* Yamato-hime no mikoto seiki [Story of Princess Yamato], compiled in
the 9th century, and only a second half comes down in manuscript. Some
scholars, however, believe it to be a later forgery.
10 * Shoku Nihongi [Chronicles of Japan: second series], compiled in the
9th century, 1903 ed., Book 2, p. 20.
11 Ibid., p. 22.
13 Gunsho ruijO [Collected works], 1918, vol. 17, p. 9.
15 Motoori, N., Kojiki-den, vol. 2, pp. 1622-3.
14 Wakan sansai zue [Illustrated cyclopaedia of Japanese and Chinese
matters], 1713, Book 84, p. 11.
14 Toxophilug, Book 2 .- School of shooting.
14 Journal of American Folk-Lore, Sept. 1908, vol. 21, p. 244.
17 Nihongi [Chronicles of Japan], tr. by W. G. Aston, 1897, vol. 2, p. 389.
14 Nihongi ryaku [Brief chronicles of Japan], 1st ser., vol. 16, part 4.
14 Compiled during the Engi period (901-922) and deals with the court
rites and ceremonies exclusively, 1906 ed., pp. 485-6.
446
Shio Sakanishi
detail the ceremony which was performed on the first day of the
Hare each year and mentions holly among the woods used for this
purpose. The custom was of Chinese origin, 20 and in its early
stage peach sticks were used. 21 In Japan sticks cut to five feet in
length and tied two or three together, were placed in the four
corners of various rooms in the court. The occasion was made much
of, and Sei Shonagon counts it as one of the most pleasant events
of the court life. 22 There is evidence of its being annually observed
till the beginning of the 14th century, 23 hut gradually this quaint
ceremony was merged into another of the same purpose known as
the Setsubun. 2i
The Setsubun too has its origin in China, 25 and the ceremony is
characterized by the scattering of toasted beans on the eve of the
spring season to drive out evil spirits. Because of the close re-
semblance in their purpose and method of celebration, often the
Setsubun and the ancient court custom known as Tsuina 26 have
been confused. 27 The former came into existence at least two
hundred years later and at first was celebrated only among the
common people.
The Setsubun is first described in the Tosa nikhi [Tosa Diary]. 28
On his return journey to Kyoto from his post in Tosa Province,
Tsurayuki was detained at Ominato by a storm, and wrote :
30 Han shu ^g: 99, Book 2. Jjj] ^ JJ or p||j Jg] is a kind of metal
sword devised by Wang Marig (b. c. 33-a. d. 23) and worn on the first day
of the Hare each year to drive away evil spirits. When the above two or
three characters are put together, they form the character gjj the surname
of the Han rulers.
In Japan wooden sticks used for the same purpose were first called
sujJi m and later Though some scholars claim that Chinese
^lj jfP an <l Japanese p|J jj] ^ are different, as far as I can determine,
they seem to be the same.
31 Eastern Miscellany , jaijmn’ vol. 31, no. 4, Feb. 1934, pp. 55-60.
23 Makura no soshi [Pillow-book], ca. 1000, Book 4.
33 Koji mien [Cyclopaedia of antiquities]. Part 19, p. 1367.
34 Kokon yoran ko [Guide to ancient-modern matters], vol. 1, p. 747.
35 Hou han shu, Book 15. See also : Lei shu t‘suan yao. !£& if Vr 787 .
Book 5.
33 Koji mien, Part 19, pp. 1367-1383.
31 See : Aston’s Kihongi, p. 389.
38 Written by Ki no Tsurayuki in 935.
The Magic Holly in Japanese Literature
447
Though ’tis the New Year’s day, the ship remains at the same place. . . .
All day we thought only of Kyoto longingly.
‘ I wonder,’ we said to each other, ‘ how it is in Kyoto. Are the
customary decorations of straw rope, mullet head, holly, and the like
displayed at the small house doors t ’
Tsurayuki makes it clear that it was a custom among the common
people, but before the 15th century it came to be an annual institu-
tion. In a New Year’s surimono, Hokkei (1780-1850) depicts a
woman toasting beans under the customary decorations of the
season, and on the top of a sliding door is stuck a holly branch with
a sardine head. 29 The mullet head in the course of time was sub-
stituted for the sardine head, and in his poem called “ Holly,”
Tameie Fujiwara makes a pun with the word iwashi, sardine, and
iwaji, not to say. 30 In the Seiji yoryaku , 31 it is said, there is a
crude picture of a court astrologer chasing a devil with a stick, the
end of which is decorated with a prickly holly leaf.
Thus very early holly came to be credited with the power of
exorcising the evil spirits, was the essential element of the festival
of Setsubun, and the coming of the spring was heralded by the voice
of holly venders. 32
A 17th century rationalist as well as moralist Koko Kaibara
writes : 33
On the eve of the beginning of the spring season, to place heads of
sardine and holly is to ward off the devil called Kagu-hana [Smelling
Nose], who is said to eat man. But really this is a superstition of the
ignorant and should not he taken seriously.
Nevertheless, this custom was practised widely, and holly was con-
sidered the only effective means of frightening away the devils.
To cite a few examples from the contemporary literature : in a
’“The Art Institute of Chicago, Negative No. 45721.
30 Tono naka tea kazu narazu tomo hiiragi no
Iro ni idetemo it caji tozo omoo.
An anthology compiled in 1224 and quoted in the Kokon yoran kd, vol. 1,
p. 936.
31 Compiled hy Kotosuke Koremune, ca. 1000.
33 Saikai jiten [Dictionary of the Haikai poems], revised and enlarged
ed., 1928.
33 Vihon saiji-ki [Calendar of rites and ceremonies of Japan], 1687,
Book 7, p. 10.
6
448
Shio SaJemishi
comic interlude entitled Setsubun Festival, 3 * probably put in the
present form in the mid-16th century, there is the following
monologue by the devil who comes from the Island of Eternal
Youth:
As I hurry along, I am already in the Isles of Japan. I am exceedingly
tired and hungry and want something to eat. Oh, here is a house. I
shall take a look.
Ouch, ouch! How painful!
I forgot all about this being the night of the Setsubun when people put
holly at the door to scare us away, and hurt my eyes badly.
Again in the Oni no tsuchi [Magic Mallet of the Devil] 35 of a
little later date, the devil who comes from the Island of Horai to
attend the fair of the Dragon’s day, has had a little too much to
drink.
Devil: How frightening! Terrible, terrible!
Waki: What is the matter. Sir?
Devil: Yonder between the two stone buildings, a branch of holly is
sticking right into my path. I am scared. Ha, ha, ha!
One of the favorite subjects of the Otsu painters in the 18th
century was a rat chasing a devil up a pillar holding in his mouth
the magic holly leaves. 38 Sometimes on the side, yuruse, yuruse,
“ Pardon, pardon,” is written with Vermillion ink. 37 In netsuJce
too this theme is frequently used, and once I saw an unsigned
netsuke illustrating a master of ceremony with a holly twig in his
hand and a devil hiding his face with his hands. In textile, the
only design of holly I have seen is of the beautiful kesa or priest’s
robe of the 17th century, 38 identified as the Shichijo style by Miss
Helen C. Gunsaulus.
Holly either as a given or surname is not known in modern
Japan. However, in ancient times in the province of Yamato, there
was one Hiragi 39 (which is a contracted form of Hiiragi) , who was
“Zofcu kyogen ki [Collection of comic interludes; second series], 1903,
p. 365.
35 Kyogen niju-ban [Twenty comic interludes], 1903, p. 97.
5 * Otsu-ye, 1920, Folio 1, plate 24.
37 Yanagi, M., “The peasant painting of Otsu,” Eastern Art, 1930, vol. 2,
pp. 5-36.
38 The Art Institute of Chicago, Negative No. C12600.
Sei-shi kakei jisho [Genealogical dictionary], 1930, p. 1170.
The Magic Holly in Japanese Literature
449
a Shinto priest. During the Genroku period (1688-1704) there
was in Kyoto a group of metal workers known as the Hiiragi-ya
[Holly House]. 40 Their sword-guards were called the Hiiragi-ya
tsuba and prized for their exquisite inlay work. As to the origin
of their name “Holly,” nothing is known.
Holly, however, was used as the mon or family badge, and accord-
ing to Yorisuke Numata, 41 its earliest use appears in the Kenbun
sholca mon [Family badges of various houses which I have seen or
heard] compiled in the 15th century. Already a holly crest was
used by the Kamiie and Uehara families. In the early Tokugawa
period among the feudal lords, Oseki and Ichihashi adopted it. 42
The Ichihashi badge especially is interesting since it consists of
three holly leaves and three toasted beans, suggesting definitely the
celebration of the Setsubun and their power of exorcising evil
spirits.
The legend of the Holly Grove 43 in the suburb of Kyoto again
goes back to antiquity. In the year 735 a. d. for the first time, the
country experienced the terrific epidemic of small-pox. 44 It started
in spring and raged till the late summer, taking a heavy toll of
lives. Especially Tankai Fuji war a, a poet and courtier, suffered a
loss of his four sons. Grief stricken, Tankai consulted the famous
oracle of the Kamo Shrine, 45 and was told to offer a prayer at the
Shrine of Holly. 46 Having followed the oracle, the remaining
members of the family escaped the dread disease, and as an ex-
pression of his deep gratitude, Tankai offered a holly tree to the
shrine.
The efficacy of the shrine of Holly against small-pox soon spread
10 Wada, T., Honpd sSken kinko ryaku-shi [Brief history of the metal
workers of Japan], 1913, pp. 85-86.
41 Nihon monsko gaku, 1926, pp. 646-8.
“Tanaka, Kikuo, Iroha-biki moncho [Family badges arranged in the
i-ro-ha order], 1881, p. 100.
** Hiragi no mori in Japanese. Its earliest mention is in the Choshun-ki
[Diary of a courtier] by Morotoki Minamoto (d. 1139) .
44 Shoku Nihongi, Book 12, p. 214.
45 Kamo-Mioya jinja in the Lower Kamo District in Kyoto and one
of the earliest national shrines listed in the Engi-shiki, Book 9 : Deities IX,
p. 281.
44 Hiragi no yashiro, one of the lesser shrines within the great Kamo
jinja. Its patron deity is Prince Susanoo, brother to the great Sun Goddess,
Amaterasu. The name Hiragi probably was derived from a holly tree
growing in its ground.
450
Shio Sakanishi
over the country, and people came from far and near with their
offerings, and the famous Grove of Holly was thus established.
The trees offered, however, were not all holly : there were camellias,
elder bushes, orange trees, and others. But as soon as they were
transplanted in the grove, they began to grow prickly leaves and
gradually the entire tree was metamorphosed into holly. 47 During
the Middle Ages, the grove was considered one of the curious sights
of Kyoto. 48
Churyo Sato, an herbalist of Edo in the 18th century, was not
willing to accept such a tale without looking into the matter per-
sonally. In the course of his herb-gathering, therefore, he made a
special pilgrimage to the Shrine of Holly and wrote:
... It is said that all the trees brought to the Grove of Holly metamorphose
into holly, hut upon examining them closely, I find that they do not
metamorphose, but are holly from the first. 4 *
The story of metamorphosis, however, found an exponent in
Sozan Miyoshi, who visited the Grove in 1838. He writes :
... As I looked closely into the sacred Grove, which is some 24 square
yards, I found, though there are various kinds of trees, they are either
entirely or partially holly. ... I recognized camellias, oaks, gardenias,
and a few others, but they were already half holly. In one corner,
however, there was a clump of elder bushes, which still maintained their
own leaves. It might be that the leaves of the lower branches have grown
prickly, but they were so closely planted that I was unable to examine
them. Inside the Grove, it is so crowded that there is no more space,
and people plant their offerings outside, and they all turn into holly in
no time. . . , tQ
To sum up, from primitive times to the present, holly in Japan
has been vested with a certain magic power. Although the rites
and ceremonies connected with it came from China originally, its
cult is indigenous to Japan, and finds closer parallels in Western
folk-lore. 51
t7 Koji ruien under Plants, Book 10, p. 631.
48 Matsuo, Genki, Fuyo Kyoka-shi [Description of Kyoto], 1665, vol. 1,
p. 2.
" Chiryo manroku [Chdryo’s miscellany], ca. 1790, and printed in the
Zuihitsu taikan, vol. 5, p. 22.
50 86san chohun kishu [Sozan’s wonders, seen and heard], 1854, Book 5,
p. 53.
“See for example the English use of holly to drive out witches and for
Christmas decoration, or the legend of holly-oak in the sacred grove of
Diana.
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(Specimen Plate)
( fol. 24 a )
THE GAEEETT SAHIDIC MANUSCEIPT OE ST. LUKE
Hen'ey S. Gehman
Princeton Theological Seminary
AND
Princeton University
(with one plate)
As fak as we know to-day, there are extant no complete copies
of ancient Coptic manuscripts of the Gospel of St. Luke. The
Sahidic Coptic manuscript of St. Luke, which is now in the posses-
sion of Mr. Eobert Garrett of Baltimore, is therefore of very great
importance in the study of the Coptic Gospels. The Garrett manu-
script, which is written in well-drawn uncials on parchment, prob-
ably was copied in the sixth century.
In the Album de Paleographie Copte pour servir a l’ introduction
paleographique des Actes des Martyrs de VEgypte by Henri Hy-
vemat, Paris-Eome, 1888, plate 3 is a reproduction of pages 20 and
21 of a manuscript from the Borgian Collection, No. 246, Naples,
which is assigned to the sixth or seventh century. A comparison
between this plate and the Garrett manuscript shows rather close
resemblances in the formation of the letters. While the Borgian
codex is practically constant in having a single form of M and \
we have two types of these letters in the Garrett manuscript.
On plate 4, Hyvernat, op. cit., we have a reproduction of a manu-
script which too is dated about the sixth or seventh century. The
U and the \ of the Garrett manuscript resemble those of the plate.
The two types of M also have their counterparts on plate 4. On the
basis of these comparisons, the manuscript apparently belongs to
the sixth or seventh century.
Further aid in dating the manuscript is found in W. H. Worrell’s
Proverbs of Solomon in Sahidic Coptic according to the Chicago
Manuscript (University of Chicago Press, 1931). Speaking of the
date of his manuscript, Worrell says (xi) : “The hand of the
Chicago manuscript would, in the absence of other evidence, be
dated conservatively as of the sixth century; and this would seem
to be demanded by the rounded epsilon, on the one hand, and the
hair lines and smallness of the letters on the other.” Professor
Worrell reproduces four pages of the Chicago manuscript in fac-
simile. A comparison of these pages with the Garrett manuscript
451
452
Henry S. Gehman
shows many close similarities in the formation of the letters, among
which is epsilon. If we accept Worrell’s date, the Garrett manu-
script should be assigned to the same period; the writer sees no
reason to disagree with Professor Worrell.
A comparison of the Garrett manuscript with the plates in the
third volume of Horner’s Sahidic Version of the New Testament,
Oxford, 1911, also favours the sixth century as the date of this
manuscript.
The ornamental scrolls which are drawn in the margins at the
beginning of chapters or divisions in the text, show likewise a great
similarity to the scrolls of the above mentioned Borgian codex.
The decorations are drawn in ink only, without any further colour-
ing. The divisions in the text correspond to the early K€<j>aXaui
which were used in Greek Biblical codices.
The manuscript lacks about 370 verses through loss of folios;
only 55 folios are left. In some places the codex is worm-eaten;
in many cases the lower line or a portion of it is missing, because
the folio is either worm-eaten or thumb-worn. Polio 1 is very
badly mutilated, and chapter 1, 1-5 is practically illegible; folio 1 b
is more legible than 1 a, but much is missing on account of the
worm-eaten condition of the folio. Folios 2 and 3 are also very
fragmentary. Folio 4 has one large worm-hole and two smaller
ones. On account of defects of this nature occurring throughout
the codex, probably fifty more verses are missing in this codex.
No superscription is visible on the first page.
The following list gives the numbers of the extant folios with
the chapters and verses contained on each ; no indication is made of
the loss of verses (or more frequently of parts of verses) through
defects in the parchment: 1. 1,1-6; 7-13 2. 1, 14-20(?);
20( ?)-26 3. 1,26-34; 34-41 4. 1,41-50; 50-61 5. I,
61-69 ; 69-79 — 6. 1, 79-11, 7 ; 7-14 7. II, 14-22 ; 22-28
8. 11,28-37; 37-44 9. 11,44-52; 52-111,4 10. 111,4-10;
10-16 13. IV, 11-18 ; 18-24 14. IV, 24-32 ; 32-37 15.
IV, 38-42; 43-V, 6 16. V,6-12; 12-17 17. V, 17-24; 24-
30 19 - VI, 4-11 ; 11-17 20. VI, 17-23 ; 23-33 21. VI,
33-38 ; 39-45 22. VI, 45-49 ; 49-VII, 8 23. VII, 8-14; 14-
21 24. VII, 21-26; 26-33 25. VII, 33-40; 40-47 26.
VII, 47-VIII 3; 3-9 27. VIII, 9-14; 14-19 28. VIH, 19-
25 ; 25-29 29. VIII, 29-34; 34-39 30. VIII, 39-45 ; 45-51
31. VIII, 51-IX, 3 ; 3-9 32. IX, 9-14; 14-20 33. IX,
The Garrett Sahidic Manuscript of St. Luke 453
20-26 ; 26-33 34. IX, 33-40 ; 40-47 35. IX, 47-55 ; 55-X,
2 36. X, 2-10 ; 10-18 37. X, 18-24; 24-32 38. X,32-
40; 40-XI, 5 39. XI, 5-14; 14-22 40. XI, 22-29; 30-37
41. XI, 37-45; 45-52 42. XI, 52-XII, 5; 5-11 43.
XII, 11-20 ; 20-28 44. XII, 28-36 ; 36-43 45. XII, 44-51 ;
51-58 46. XII, 58-XIII, 7; 7-15 47. XIII, 15-24; 24-31
beginning 54. XVI, 17-24; 25-31 55. XVI, 31-XVII, 7;
7-15 56. XVII, 15-24; 24-32 57. XVII, 33-XVIII, 5 ; 5-
12 58. XVIII, 12-17; 18-26 59. XVIII, 26-34; 34-XIX,
1 60. XIX, 2-9; 9-16 61. XIX, 16-24; 24-33 62.
XIX, 33-43 ; 43-XX, 3 ; originally XX, 4, but broken off. 63.
XX, 4-12; 12-19 64. XX, 19-28; 28-38.
The upper margins in a number of pages contain short lines of
script which have been added by different hands of a later period.
These notes, in some cases, are short titles indicating the content
of the text below; in other cases, they are liturgical memoranda,
noting the days on which particular lessons are to be read. No con-
sistent system, however, is furnished in these fragmentary mar-
ginal notes.
In respect to completeness, the Garrett manuscript of St. Luke
takes a worthy place beside Horner’s Sahidic MSS. of Luke, 91
and 114. These manuscripts are described in The Coptic Versions
of the New Testament in the Southern Dialect — otherwise called
Sahidic and Thebaic, Oxford, 1911 (which is Horner’s work),
Vol. Ill, 353, 355. In the John Pierpont Morgan Library is a
Coptic manuscript of the four Gospels, of the eighth or ninth
century. In this manuscript the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and
John are complete, but fourteen leaves from Luke (IV, 33-IX, 30;
IX, 62-XIII, 18) were missing, when the manuscript was found.
A comparison of the contents of the Garrett manuscript with
those of the manuscripts used by Horner and of the Morgan Gospels
shows the great importance of this codex in the Coptic version of
St. Luke. This codex represents a good text of the Sahidic Gospel
of St. Luke. A careful collation of the manuscript with the text
and apparatus criticus of Horner proves that there is extant just
one Sahidic version of this Gospel. The manuscript, in many cases,
follows Horner’s readings in the footnotes rather than those of his
text. While the manuscript is old and excellent, it gives us prac-
tically nothing beyond what Horner had in forming his text. It
should be noted that it has many points of agreement with the
454
Henry S. Gehman
following of Horner’s manuscripts, which are arranged in the order
of the frequency of these agreements: 114, 91, 89, 85, 86, 73, 129,
90, 111, 11, 8, 9, 78, 8, 53, 88, 25, 70, 16, 126. It is of the greatest
importance, however, to observe that its readings agree most con-
sistently with 114, 91, 89, 85, and 86, and consequently we conclude
that it forms a group with them. Agreements here and there with
the following also were noted : 37, f 1 , m 1 , y 1 , 12 1 , 13 1 , 24 1 , l 1 , 25 1 , 1,
128, 346, 108, 15, 41, 17, 33; the order of the numbers in this
sentence and the following one is of no significance, since the
agreements are too few to enable us to draw any conclusions.
Occasional readings were also found in agreement with e 1 , 6 1 , 9 1 ,
19 1 , 21 1 , 48 1 , 5, 14, 13, 18, 41, 47, 49, 50, 57, 62, 63, 64, 69, 84,
113, 116, 118, 124, 131, 157, 159, 209, 239, 240, 244, 274.
The dialect of the manuscript is Sahidic. In 18, 11, Horner
has NJCONC) which is a Bohairic form; he does not list in his
notes the Sahidic form, NdONC- The manuscript uniquely has
the Sahidic form in this instance. The codex, however, contains a
few localisms or individualisms, among which is especially promi-
nent the fondness of g for q . In this category are found the
following examples : 1 3,1, NNegqCD — NNC^BID, which is also
Sahidic. This reading is not found in any of Horner’s manuscripts :
7, 14, NGTqi — N6TB1, agreeing with Homer’s MSS. 114, 129 ;
7, 24, N^1NC|A.UI)1N© — NAlBAltpiN©, agreeing with Horner’s
78^80, 86, 114; 7, 44, ©ACqOTOy MTTCiCqCU — A.CBOTOY
gfinecqtD, agreeing with 78, 86, 114; 8, 18, ceNAqiTq —
CGNABlTq agreeing with MSS. 86, 91, 114 ; 10, 1, Ketpqec-
Nooyc — KeajBeCNOOyC, agreeing with 88; 10, 11,
TeNqtUTe — TNBlDTe, agreeing with 88, 91; 10, 17,
lnetpqeCNOOyC — N/flTTKetpBeCNOOyC where
8 and 88 have -g-; 10, 35,qeiTTeqpooy(p — BITTeqpOOytp;
12, 7, NKeqOJ — NKGBOJ, agreeing with 89, 91, 129; 12, 26,
TeTNqipooyqj— TeTNBipooyqj ; 13, 21, aj.VNTqjc-
1-O-A.B — tpANTBJClOAB ; 18, 20, MTTpgtDqT— MTTPgtDBT
agreeing with 89, 91, 114. Some of these forms are recognized in
the lexicon as variant 2 Sahidic forms.
1 In all citations, the reading of Horner is always placed first, while that
of the Garrett manuscript is second.
- The interchange of these two sounds is frequent, cf. Till, W.. Eoptische
Dialektgrammatik, Miinchen, 1931, § 7 j; Worrell, Coptic Sounds, Univ.
of Michigan, 1934, 83-88, 99-100.
The Garrett Sahidic Manuscript of St. Luke
455
There is found in the manuscript also the opposite change, q for
g: 9, 32, TTJMNHB — TT£INHCJ ; 10, 35, BKITG — CJKHTG, ‘2
drachmas/ According to Horner, his manuscript had q, which
he corrected to g.
In the manuscript, in a number of instances, p is read for k :
6, 18, NA.KA.-0-A.pT ON — NA.rA-e-A.pTON; 8, 29, idem; 11,
24, idem, in agreement with MS. 89; 13, 14,eqxrANAKTei —
ecjA.rA.NA.rrf Where 90 and 91 also have —NAT — On the
other hand, k is found for p : 19, 29, eBHA<|>ArH — eBHA.<j>-
AKH- in agreement with MSS. 89, 90, 91, 114.
is found for -p: 10, 18, enCATANAC — 6TTCAAANAC
in agreement with 91 ; 10, 35, M rTTTANT OXey C — MrfTTA: :
AOKeyC, in agreement with Bohairic D, E; 11, 18, nCATA-
NAC— TTCA-AANAC; in agreement with MS. 89; 16, 26,
oyre — oyA6 in agreement with 91, 114.
On the other hand, T is written for 9, 7, j>Hpa»A_HC —
£HparrHC; 9, 9, idem.
Among other changes may be noted q for y: 20, 18, GNTAy^G
— NTACJ2.0 ; cf. eNTAqge, MSS. 90, and 114. The op-
posite change is found, 8, 29, GqjAqTopnq— GipAyTopnq.
In 18, 1,<T is written for g, and rg (graphically) for nr: 6TM-
GNKAgei — erfierKA/Tf • In this case, MSS. 89, 91, 114 also
have tf for g. In 19, 2, 5, 8, ZAKXAIOC — ZAXAIOC in
agreement with MSS. 73, etc.
Anaptyzis occurs: 11, 15, BeGXZGBOyA — 866X626-
Boyx; 11, 18, idem, but cf. 11, 19, BeeA^eBOyA ; 19, 23,
6T6TpAne2A — eTe't'pATTGZA- Metathesis is found,
8, 41, lAeipOC — lApiOC-
The manuscript is consistent in the use of double consonants in
certain words. The word “kingdom,” e. g., has -pp- : 1, 33,
NTeqMNTepO — NTeqMNTppO, like MS. 89; 4, 43,
NTMNTepO — NTMNTppO, in agreement with MS. 86;
6, 20, TMNTepO — TGTMNTppO (MSS. 86, 111, 114) ;
12, 31, TeqMNTepO — TeqMNTppo, like 89. The word
‘Pharisee’ prefers -CC-: 5, 11, £GN<j>ApiCA10C — £GN-
<|>ApiCCA10C (MS. 86) ; cf. also 5, 30 (MSS. 86, 111) ; 6, 7
(MS. 86, etc.) : 7, 36 (MSS. 78, 114, 13 1 , m 1 ) ; 11, 37-38 (MSS.
89, 91, 24 1 ) ; 11, 43 (MSS. 89, 91, 24 1 ) ; 11, 53 (MSS. 89, 91);
17, 20 (MSS. 89, 91, 114, /) ; 18, 10 (MS. 89, etc.).
456
Henry S. Gehman
Double Ris found: 6, 14, 1AKUJKOC — -IAKKCDROC (MS.
114) ; likewise 6, 15, where it agrees with MSS. Ill, 114.
The manuscript has rather uniform peculiarities of spelling, l
for el is very frequent. A few examples will suffice: 1, 29,
neiA.cnA.cHoc — mA.cnA.cMoc; 1, 63, AqAixei —
AqAITl (MS. 18 ) ; 2, 37, ^CNNHCTCIA. — gCNNHCTIA;
4, 12-neipA-Ze — rnpA^e; 9, 21, AqTTApArreixe —
A.qnxpA.nxe (Mss. 91, 129) ; 10, 21, rrxoeic — tt.xoic,
but in 19, 34, the manuscript writes nJCOCIC- On the other
hand, in 6, 21, where Horner writes TCTNACI, the manuscript
has TCTNACCI . We also find examples of y for h : 8, 14,
NgHAONH — N^yAONH ; 9, 33, NCKHNH — NCKyNH;
19, 21, NAyCTHpOC — AyCTypOC, but in 19, 22, the
manuscript agrees with Homer. On the other hand, h may be
written for y : 1, 2, N^ynepeTHC — NgHTTCpCTHC
(mss. 114, 126) ; 4, 20, fln^ynHpeTHc — fln^HTiep-
6THC. y and h may also be interchanged in the same word :
4, 44, NeqKHpycce — NeqKypHCce; 8, l, eqKH-
pycce — eqKypHCCe. 1 may be written for h : 6, 35,
oyxpHCToc — oyxpicToc-
There are some unique readings, but they are not of serious
value in the construction of a text, since in most cases they do not
change the meaning.
It seems strange that the manuscript omits the Golden Rule, 6,
31 : And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to
them likewise. There is no defect in the manuscript at that
passage ; it proceeds directly from verse 30 to verse 32. Similarly
11, 10 is entirely omitted. In 3, 6, there is an omission of the first
half of the verse : AytD TTCOOy MTTJCOC1C NAOytDNg
CBOA- 12, 55 omits at the end of the verse : AytD (l)Aq(p(DTT6.
The few additions to the text are not serious. In 18, 31, for
?1T N NeTTpo<t>HTHC ; the manuscript has glTMTINOMOC
MN Nenpo^>HTHC. In 19, 21 is found a doublet: CKqi
MneTCMncUKANTTC * CKqi MTTeTCMTTeKKAAq
eepAi.
A few errors may be mentioned: 5, 17, ad finem , ©rpeq-
TAA/fO, where the manuscript has CTpeCTAA<fo, the femi-
nine for the masculine ; 5, 24, CIALID — CyJCOJ ; H, 42 NCOJOJC
<3AAy> where the manuscript has the negative, N(p(pC
ANCAAy; 17, 5, NATTOCTOAOC — NATTOCTOA1C.
The Garrett Sahidic Manuscript of St. Luke
457
It is evident, therefore, that the manuscript presents a good text.
In fact, it gives us a few corrections: 4, 29, ffTTTOO£, the
mountain’; since Horner gives no variant, it is possible that his
text here contains a misprint ; at any rate, the codex correctly reads
irrrrooy; 12, 15, jce epajAN ngniu an NoyA
au>ai. eqNA£© erreqtDNj* ©boa. N^HToy, which
Horner translates: “for if the possessions of one should abound,
he is not about to find his life out of them ” ; here the codex has
the correct reading : X.G ©p<J}A : : N6NKA A<J}A1 NOyA.
eqNA£© an erreqa>N£ ©boa NgHToy.
In some cases, the codex uniquely employs a synonym: 3, 4,
2.N TepHMOC — ^lTTJCAie, where MS. 128 has gfi
TTJCAie; 4, 35, AqNoyjce fmoq — AqpAjnrq, ‘struck
him,’ ‘ cast him ’; 8, 12, TT.AlABOA.OC — TTTTONHpoC j 9, 39,
CBHHT© ‘ foam,’ for which the manuscript has C^BHT©,
‘foam,’ a form (but with -HH-) to which Crum, in his Coptic
Dictionary, assigns first place; 11, 39, AKA-O-ApcIA — TTON-
HpiA in agreement with MSS. 89, 91 ; 12, 33, £OOA©, ‘ moth ’ —
JCOOAGC , in agreement with MSS. (9?), 89, 91 (fr) ; 12, 48,
ceNAcpATq— ceNAJCNoyq; 12, 57, A^purrN nt©tn
K piN© AN AJjpiDTN A.e NT©TN COOyN AN
NAOKIMA 2 ©; 17, 14, MATOytDTN ©NOyHHB — MAT-
CABCDTN NOyHHB. > 18, 15 and 17, 11} HM — KOyi; 18, 19,
oyBHi — epoi'; 18, 36, eqnApAre — eqMootpe, in
agreement with K; 20, 26; ©AOTiq — ©oyOCpBeq.
Sometimes the supralinear stroke is used instead of the full
vowel e ; in other cases, we have the reverse usage. Generally,
however, the manuscript is accurate in this matter. At the end
of the line, N is usually represented by a long horizontal stroke
over the preceding vowel which thus closes the line. In 8, 29, M
is similarly represented : ©2©MMA — ©£©::MA; it may be,
however, that the scribe had in mind the unassimilated N .
Naturally it is impossible in an article of this sort to go into
greater detail in describing the manuscript. The writer has
endeavoured simply to point out the most important characteristics
both in readings and in spellings. The codex represents an
excellent text and offers, as has been indicated, a few advantages
over Horner’s text. In the main, it is very closely related to MSS.
114, 91, 89, 85, and 86.
IGNAZIO GUIDI— SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Richard Gottheil
Columbia Universitt
One of the greatest living Orientalists has passed out of existence
at the ripe age of ninety-one. He was an honorary member of
our society and we honored ourselves by making him such. As one
who knew him personally and had been at his house at No. 24 Via
Botteghe Oseuro in Rome, I feel it a privilege to say a word in
regard to him.
Guidi was born in Rome on the thirty-first of July, 1844. As
the great Italian Encyclopedia says : “ He made an Orientalist of
himself,” for Oriental languages were not as yet cultivated in
Italy — beyond the province of those interested in ecclesiastical
matters. From the year eighteen seventy-three to seventy-six he
was custodian of the numismatic collections at the Vatican. At
the University, during various periods, he taught Greek. In 1876
he became Instructor, in 1879 Extraordinary Professor, and in
1885 Ordinary Professor of Hebrew and the Semitic Languages,
including Ethiopic. On account of his age he had become Emeritus
Professor. He died at 9.30 a. m. on Thursday, April the eighteenth,
and was buried on Saturday afternoon at 4 o’clock.
The notice I have received reads in part:
“ Oggi <dl e ore 9.30 si e spento serenamente con i conforti della
religione e con la benedizione speciale del S. padre
Ignazio Guidi
Professor Emerito nella Regia Universita di Roma
Senatore del Regno.”
He was of a most lovable character, only too willing to help
others on the way, if they showed real scholarly interest.
As regards his works, those of which I have knowledge are the
following :
a. Arabic:
1. J amal al-Din ibn Hisham’s Commentary on Ka’b ibn Zuhair’s
" Bdnat Su’ad ” Leipzig, 1871-74.
458
Ignazio Guidi — Selected Bibliography 459
2. “ Studi sul testo arabo del Libro di Calila we-Dimna,” Roma,
1873.
3. “ Della Sede primitivi dei populo Semitici,” in Mem. d. Acca-
demia dei Lincei, 1879.
4. A portion of al-Tabari’s “Annals,” Vol. II, Leiden, 1882-
1886.
5. Ed. of Libro dei Verbi of Ibn al Kutiyyah, Leiden, 1894.
6. Index to the Eitab al-Aghdni, Leiden, 1900.
7. Translation into Italian of Khalil ibn Ishak al-Jundi’s al-
Mukhtasar, or code of Muslin law according to the Mali-
kikite system, Rome, 1919.
8. “La descrizione di Roma nei geographi arabi,” in Archivo
Socidle Romano, 1887.
9. L'Arabie Anteislamique, Paris, 1921.
10. Summarum Grammaticae veteris linguae ardbicae meridio-
nalis, Cairo, 1930 (Latin and Arabic).
b. Syriac:
1. “La Lettera di Simeon di Beth Arsham sopra i martiri ori-
ante ” in Mem. d. Acc. dei Lincei, Roma, 1881.
2. “ La Lettera di Filosseno ai monaci di Toledo,” ibid., 1886.
3. “ Mundhir III und die beiden monophysitischen Bischofe,”
ZDMG., 35, pp. 142 ff.
4. “ Beitrage zur Kenntniss des neu- aramaischen Fellihi-
Dialektes,” ibid., 37, pp. 293 ff (1883).
5. “ Zur Kirschengeschichte des Catholikes Sabbrisho,” I, ibid.,
40, pp. 559 ff.
6. “La Lettera di Filosseno ai monaci di Toledo,” Acc. dei
Lincei , 1881.
7. “ Un Nuovo testo siriaco sulla storia degli ultimi Sassanidi,”
in Actes du Euitieme Congres International des Orien-
talistes, Vol. I, part 2, 36 pp., Leiden, 1891.
8. “ Chronica Minora,” in Corpus Script. Christ. Orient., Paris,
1890-1902.
c. Ethiopia:
1. “Le Traduzioni degli Evangeli in Arabo e in Etiopieo,” in
Acc. dei Lincei, Roma, 1888.
2. Proverbi , Strofi e raconti Abissini, tradotti e pubblicati,
Roma, 1894.
460
Richard Gottheil
3. Tl Fetha Nagast o Legialazione dei Re, two vols., Boma,
1897-1899.
4. “ Qene e inni Abissini,” in Acc. dei Lincei , 1900, pp. 463 ff.
5. “ Annales regum Johannis I. Iyasu i. e. Bakaffa e Historia
Gentis Galla,” Corp. Script. Christ. Orient , Paris, 1902-
1903.
6. “La Synaxaire Ethiopien,” in Patrologia Orientalis, Paris,
1906.
7. Storia della letteratura etiopica, Boma, 1932.
8. Grammatica elementare della lingua Amarina, Boma, 1899.
(There were various editions of this work.)
9. Vocabulario Amarico-italiano, Boma, 1901.
10. “ A propos d’une nouvelle edition du Lex. aeth. de Dill-
mann,” in Aethiops, Paris, 1922, pp. 49 ff.
11. “Abisinnia, Ge’ez, Amarico, Tigrino, lingue cuschitiehe,
Somalo,” in Rivista degli studi orientali, Boma, 1910, pp.
154 ff.
12. “ Der athiopische 4 Senados,’ ” ZDMG., 55, pp. 495 ff. (1901) .
13. “Annales regum Iyasu II. et Iyo’as; interpretatus est Ig-
natius Guidi,” Corp. Script. Christ. Orient., Scriptores
Aethiopici, Series Altera, tomus 6, Boma, 1912.
14. “ Gli archivi in Abissinia,” International Congress of His-
torical Studies (Atti), Boma, 1906, pp. 651 ff.
15. “ Di due frammenti relativi alia storia di Abissinia,” Reale
Acc. dei Lincei, Boma, 1893, pp. 579 ff.
16. “ Leggendi storiche di Abissini,” Rivista degli studi orientali,
Boma, 1907, pp. 5 ff.
17. “TJna sqarcio di storia ecclesiastica di Abissinia,” Berssari-
one, Boma, 1900, pp. 10 ff.
18. “II Zena Narga (II racconto di Narga),” Acc. dei Lincei,
Boma, 1905, pp. 233 ff.
19. “ Gli atti apocrifi degli apostoli nel testi copti, arabi ed
etiopici,” Giornale d. Societa, asiatica italiana, Firenze,
1888, pp. 1 ff.
20. “ II Gadla ’Aragawi,” Mem. d. Acc. dei Lincei, Boma, 1896,
pp. 54 ff.
21. “ La storia di Hayla Mika’el,” Rendiconti d. Acc. dei Lincei,
Boma, 1902, pp. 1 ff.
22. “ Textes orientaux inedits du martyre de Judas Cyriaque,
Ignazio Guidi — Selected Bibliography
461
eveque de Jerusalem; texte ethiopien,” Revue de V Orient
chretien, Paris, 1906, pp. 337 ff.
23. " Bahrey : Historia gentis Galla, interprete I. Guidi,” in
Historia regio Sar a Dengel . . . interpretatus est K. Conti
Rossini, Paris, 1907, pp. 193 ff.
24. “ Sopra due degli ‘ Aethiopisehe Lesestiicke ’ del Dr. Bach-
mann,” in ZA., 1896, pp. 401 ff.
25. “ H Be’ela nagast,” Oriental Studies published in commemo-
ration of the fortieth anniversary of Paul Eaupt, Balti-
more, 1926, pp. 403 ff.
26. “ Le canzoni geez-amarina in onore di re Abissini,” Rendi-
conti d. Acc. dei Lincei, Roma, 1889, pp. 53 ff.
27. "Due notizie storice sull’ Abissinia,” Giornale d. Societa
asiatica italiana, Roma, 1889, pp. 176 ff.
28. “ II ’Marha ’Ewur,” in Rendiconti d. Acc. dei Lincei, Roma,
1896, pp. 363 ff.
29. " II mashafa genzat,” Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Miscellanea
Ceriani, Milano, 1910, pp. 633 ff.
30. “ Testi orientali inediti sopra i sette dormienti di Efeso,”
Acc. dei Lincei: Memorie, Roma, 1884, pp. 343 ff.
31. " Contributi alia storia letteraria di Abissinia,” Rendiconti
d. Acc. dei Lincei, Roma, 1922, pp. 65 ff. ; pp. 185 ff.
32. "La prima stampa del Nuovo Testamento in etiopico fatta
in Roma nel 1548-1549,” Reale Societa romana di storia
patria, Archivio, Roma, 1886, pp. 273 ff.
33. “ Le traduzioni degli Evangelii in arabo e in etiopico,” Mem.
d. Accad. dei Lincei, Roma, 1888, pp. 5 ff.
34. " La Cronaca di Galawdewos o Claudio re di Abissina (1540-
1559),” Actes du XII. Congres International des Orienta-
listes, Rome, 1899, Florence, 1902, Vol. III. I. pp. Ill ff.
35. " Di alcuni inni abissini,” Rivista degli studi orientali, Roma,
1907, pp. 217 ff.
36. “ Due antiche preghiere nel Ritual abissino dei Defonti,”
Oriens Christianas , 1911, pp. 20 ff.
37. " La raccolta di Qene nel ms. d’Abbadie 145,” Rendiconti d.
Acc. dei Lincei, Roma, 1907, pp. 529 ff.
38. " The Ethiopic Senkessar,” in JRAS., 1911, pp. 739 ff.
39. “ Nuovi proverbi, strofe e racconti abissini,” Giornale d.
Societa Asiatica italiana, Roma, 1892, pp. 3 ff.
462
Richard Gottheil
40. “ I popoli e Ie lingue di Abissinia,” Nuova Antologia, Eoma,
1887, pp. 478 ff.
41. “ Proverbi, strofe e favole abissine,” Giornale d. Societa
asiatica italiana , 1891, pp. 27 ff.
42. “ Strofe e brevi testi amarici,” Seminar fur orientalische
Sprachen, Hittheilungen, Berlin, 1907, pp. 167 if.
43. “ Strofe e favole abissine,” L’Oriente, Eoma, 1894, pp. 88 if.
44. “ Lo studio dell’ amarieo in Europa,” Actes du XII. Congres
International des Orientalistes, Paris, 1898, pp. 67 ff.
45. “ Sulle coniugazioni del verbo amarieo,” ZA., 1893, pp. 245 ff.
46. Haslr santa mashaf qedits (Short Stories from the Scrip-
tures), Asmara, 1907.
47. “ Documenti amarina,” in Rendiconti d. Acc. dei Lincei,
Eoma, 1891, pp. 285 ff.
48. “La forma intensiva nel verbo amarieo,” Giornale d. Societa
asiatica italiana , Eoma, 1889, pp. 179 ff.
49. “Historia regio Sarsa Dengel (Malak Sagad), edidit K.
Conti Eossini, aeeedit Historia gentis Galla, curante I.
Guidi ” ( Corp . Script. Christ. Orient. Scriptores Aethiopici,
textus), Parisiis, 1907.
50. “ La leggenda di s. Mattia a Bartos,” in Giornale d. Societa
asiatica italiana, Eoma, 1889, pp. 173 ff.
51. “ Sargis d’Aberga ( controverse j udeo-chretienne ) . Premiere
assemblee. Terte ethiopien edite et traduit par S. Grebaut
avec le concours de I. Guidi,” Patrologia orientalis. III,
pp. 547 ff. ; vol. XIII, pp. 1 ff.
52. “ II Sawasew,” Orientalische Studien Theodor Noldeke zum
siebzigsten Geburtstag, vol. II, pp. 913 ff.
53. “ Le Synaxaire ethiopien : les mois de sane, hamle et nahase,
publies et traduits par Ignazio Guidi, avec le concours de
L. Desnoyers et A. Singlas,” Patrologia orientalis, I. PP-
524 ff., Paris, 1905.
54. “ Le Synaxaire ethiopien : les mois de sane, hamle, nahase et
paquemen, publies et traduits par Ignazio Guidi, avec le
concours de L. Desnoyer, A. Singlas et S. Grebaut,” in
Patrologia Orientalis, VII, pp. 208 ff.
55. “ Die traditionelle Aussprache des Aethiopischen,” in
Deutsche Literaturzeitung, Berlin, 1926, col. 1903 ff.
Ignazio Guidi — Selected Bibliography
463
d. Hebrew:
1. Note ebraiche, Roma, 1927.
e. Coptic:
1. “ Frammenti Copti,” Acc. dei Lincei, Roma, 1887-1888.
2. “ 11 canone biblico della chiesa Copta,” Revue biblique, 1901,
pp. 161 ff.
3. “ Gli atti apocrifi degli Apostoli nei testi copti, arabi et
etiopiei,” in Giornale d. Societa Asiatica, Firenze, 1889.
4. “ II testo copto del testamento di Abramo,” Acc. dei Lincei,
Roma, 1900.
5. Elementa linguae Copticae, Neapoli, 1924.
6. “ Coptica,” Rendiconti d. Acc. dei Lincei, Roma, 1906, pp.
463 ff.
7. “ II Testamento di Isacco e il Testamento di Giacobbe,” in
Rendiconti d. Acc. dei Lincei, Roma, 1900, pp. 223 ff.
8. “ II testo copto del Testamento di Abraham, Nota del Socio
I. Guidi,” in Rendiconti d. Acc. dei Lincei, Roma, 1900,
pp. 157 ff.
9. “ Di alcune pergamente saidiehe della collezione Borgiana,”
in Rendiconti d. Acc. dei Lincei, Roma, 1893, pp. 513 ff.
10. “ La traduzione copta di un’ omelia di S. Efrem,” in BessarL
one, Roma, 1902-1903, pp. 1 ff.
11. Vie et recits de I’abbe Daniel le Scetiote. . . . Texte copte,
publie par Ignazio Guidi, Paris, 1901, pp. 83 ff.
f. Persian:
1. “ Di una versione persiana del Pentateuco,” Rendiconti d.
Acc. dei Lincei, Roma, 1885, pp. 347 ff.
g. Varia:
“ L’Historiographie chez les Semites,” in Revue Biblique, 1906.
The preceding imperfect account of that which the great Italian
master has left may give some little idea of the breadth of his
knowledge and the earnestness of his scientific life. In addition,
I have a box-full of learned reviews from his pen which I have not
attempted to list here.
May his soul rest in peace !
7
BRIEF COMMUNICATION
Observation of the Equinox at Petra
Reflecting on the lunar calendar in Hellenistic Babylonia, it has
occurred to me that a group of monuments at Nabataean Petra
su oG es ^ s a due to its practical operation. Seleucid or Parthian
adaptations aside, the new year of the Neo-Babylonians and of the
Hebrews and other Semitic groups, Nisan 1, began on the evening
when the first new moon after the vernal equinox appeared. Obser-
vation of the new moon was simple and made without instruments;
that of the equinox was more difficult, but equally indispensable
to the calculation.
On the vernal (and autumnal) equinox the sun rises on almost
the exact eastern point, and sets on approximately the western,
of the horizon. If two poles are set up a few meters apart along a
true east-west line, the approach of the equinox will be reflected,
to a regular observer, in the decreasing gap between one pole and
the sun-cast shadow of the other until pole and shadow coincide.
Movable poles may in fact be used to determine the east-west line,
for only on the equinox can coincidence occur alike at sunrise and
sunset.
This annual observation made, a new year would begin auto-
matically with the appearance of the following new moon. Inter-
calary months would be added to those years whose twelfth months
ended before the vernal equinox. A calendar so controlled would
automatically fall into a nineteen-year cycle of moon and sun
identical with that purported to have been brought to virtual
perfection by “ Chaldaean ” astronomers through centuries of
tedious^ calculation, and provably adopted by the Neo-Babylonians.
On “ Obelisk Ridge,” a high place above Petra, the living rock
has been cut down to a flat platform, leaving, however, two roughly-
hewn obelisks of approximately equal size. The platform on which
they stand commands a clear view of the mountainous horizon
enc osing the city ; it is an ideal spot on which to have established
an astronomical station. According to the observations of Kennedy,
t lese obelisks stand on a true east-west line. I cannot confirm this
statement for m 1929 when I visited Obelisk Ridge I did not
464
Brief Communication
465
anticipate their bearing on calendar studies, nor was I equipped
to take accurate compass readings. Another traveler may be able
to give closer attention to this detail. If it is true, the obelisks
could have effectively served the purpose of the poles just hypo-
thetically described, in signaling the passage of the equinox.
Whether or not the nineteen-year cycle was in use at Petra, a
crude transit of this sort was necessary to any observation of the
equinox and in the absence of a more rational explanation their
presence is provocative . 1
Jotham Johnson - .
University Museum, Philadephia.
1 See: F. X. Kugler, Sternkunde und Sterndienst in Babel II 2 (1924),
pp. 422-463; cf. D. Sidersky, “ fitude sur la chronologie assyro-babylo-
nienne,” Mem. sav. etr. XIII (1923), pp. 105-199, and Fotheringbam, ‘In-
debtedness of Greek to Chaldaean Astronomy,’ The Observatory LI (1928),
p. 309.
J. Johnson, “ The Dura Horoscope and the Seleucid Calendar,” Dura
Studies (1932), pp. 1-15; cf. A. B. West, AJA XXXVII (1933), pp. 352 f.,
and R. H. McDowell, Coins from Seleucia on the Tigris (Ann Arbor, 1935),
pp. 147-153.
Gustaf Dalman, Petra und seine Felsheiligtiimer (1908), pp. 130 ff. and
figs. 96-98; Sir Alexander Kennedy, Petra, Its History and Monuments
(1926), pp. 68 f., 74 f., and figs. 164 and 202.
REVIEWS OF BOOKS
Publications of the American Schools of Oriental Research. Ex-
cavations at Tepe Gawra. Vol. I. By E. A. Speisee. Pp.
xvi 4- 220 LXXXVI Pts. Univebsity op Pennsylvania
Peess, 1935. $6.00.
Dr. Speiser presents us with a publication which one studies with
the greatest delight. The site, situated fifteen miles from Mosul
and, therefore, within the domain of “Assyria,” is of outstanding
importance for the earlier history of Mesopotamia; the printing
of text and plates is excellent, the tasteful arrangement of various
objects on the same plate being particularly laudable; and finally,
the scholarship is of the highest standard. As it should be in a
final publication, the material, thoroughly digested and completely
mastered, is presented in a well rounded picture. To fulfill all
claims of objectivity, the presentation of facts is separated from
their interpretations. The descriptions are brief and succinct, but
suffice to stress the essential points, the chapter on pottery by Miss
Cross being up to the same standard as that of other parts of the
book. The judgments are as sagacious as they are sober; cf. for
instance, the conclusions on the vexed questions of the early occur-
rence of the horse, and the treatment of the ethnic problems. The
parallels are as complete as they can be, and they prove that the
well known Semitist is also a thoroughly trained archaeologist. His
talents as historian become apparent in the conclusions drawn from
the archeological material as to the character of the people : the
inhabitants of Gawra VI were commercially minded, whereas those
of VIII were preoccupied with religion.
W e now attempt a brief account of the chief results. The
uppermost strata, settlements I, II, III, were small, since the
accumulation of the debris diminished the available space more
and more, and they date from Hurrian times. Stratum IV,
probably contemporary with the third dynasty of Ur, consists of
a shrine which shows analogies with the temple of Ishtar in
Ashur-E. Stratum V with a shrine very similar in type is Sargonid.
The language of the inhabitants of these two settlements was
doubtless Semitic, as was also that of the people in stratum VI.
Reviews of Boohs
467
This latter stratum lasted from the later “ Early Dynastic ” to
the beginning of the Sargonid period ; it shows a fairly large town,
compact, but well laid out; it has an open square in the center, a
drainage system, and is well fortified. Its relations were far flung :
brickwalls on rubble foundations and schematised idols point to
Anatolia, figures of horses and a “ covered wagon ” to the Caucasus
region and even farther, a gaming die to India; analogies in
pottery, implements, cylinder seals, toilet sets, and other things,
prove strong connections with Southern Mesopotamia, so that
Gawra VI gives the impression of having been a “melting pot.”
An interesting seal, Nr. 67, reminds of later Cypriote pieces; since
the difference in time, however, is very great, I am disinclined to
assume any connection. A “ fountain-head ” pot found in a trial
trench seems to me close in style to the pottery of Stratum Y. The
statuette, PI. XXXIII, probably represents a crouched figure, the
lower part being schematised (cf. V. Muller, Fruehe Plastih in
Griechenland und Vorderasien , PI. VI). All the strata from I
to VI are included by Speiser in the “ Late ” period of Gawra,
since trial excavations have shown that the strata reach down to
the very beginning of civilization in Mesopotamia ; the occupations
after 3000 prove thus to have been not the most prominent stage
in the splendid history of Gawra. Stratum VII with which, there-
fore, the middle period begins, has very meager architectonic re-
mains, but is important as a transitional phase : stone implements
are more numerous than in VI, hut show a considerable decrease in
comparison with VIII; objects in copper, on the other hand, very
rare in VIII, increase in number, although they are still far behind
L. VI so that the term “ chalcolithic,” given to the middle period
by Speiser, is justified; stamp and cylinder seals occur by side, no
cylinders being earlier and no stamps being later than VII. The
pottery compels to date VII to the end of the Jemdet Nasr and
the beginning of the “ Early Dynastic ” periods and shows the
very interesting fact of the intrusion of people with “ Billa ” ware.
The difficulty arising from the different dating of the correspond-
ing ware at Nineveh by Mallowan is solved by showing that the
dates at Nineveh must be modified on account of the better evidence
at Gawra. In contrast to VI, where strong Sumerian influences
are discernible, the “ highland ” component is very strong in VII.
This is still more pronounced in VIII, which is distinctly un-
468
Reviews of Books
Sumerian. This stratum, subdivided into three settlements, is
undoubtedly the most important level dealt with in the publication.
Its foremost interest lies in architecture. The main type of sanc-
tuary shows a large central room with the entrance in the short side
flanked by smaller rooms on either side. The walls have recessed
niches and, at the front side, low windows. The nearest parallel,
as Speiser rightly observes, is the Innin temple of Karaindash at
TIruk, which was unique in Mesopotamia hitherto. The fact, how-
ever, that this type is intrusive in Mesopotamia, is not altered by
its occurrence at Gawra, and we must look to the “ highlands ” for
its cradle. The low windows likewise point to regions outside
Mesopotamia, since they are found at Boghazkeui and at Zenjirli
(cf. Mitt. Deutsch. Arch. Inst. vol. 42, 1917, p. 137 f. ; Jahrh.
Deutsch. Arch. Inst. vol. 36, 1921, p. 93 f., vol. 44, 1929, p. 241 ff.),
the difference in time playing no role in the “ immovable East.”
Speiser finds another partial analogy for the Gawra type in the
“ Kalksteintempel ” of Uruk V, but I am unable to follow him
entirely in this respect. The fundamental difference is that the
central space at Tjruk is an open courtyard with the main sanctuary
at the back, the latter being a “ broad ” room, so that the building
belongs to the “ central court ” type, whereas the temple at Gawra
belongs to the “block” type (cf. Am. Journ. Arch. vol. 37, 1933,
p. 599 f.) ; cf. also the reconstruction of the temple at Uruk in
Vorlaufiger Bericht V, E. Heinrich, Schilf und Lehm, Berlin, 1934,
p. 28, with that of the temple at Gawra in the Bulletin of the
American Schools of Oriental Eesearch 54, April 1934, p. 17).
Nor would I call the open space between the projecting wings of the
Gawra type “ liwan,” because liwan means a selfsufficient and
roofed room according to Oelmann’s terminology (Bonner Jahrh.,
vol. 12 1 , 1922, p. 217 ff.). The “long” room type is not the only
one at Gawra, hut the “ broad ” room too is represented by the
important buildings 833 and 822. I am inclined to find even the
“ Ishtar-temple type ” in the building 808, although the door is
not in the corner ; but the two niches in one of the short sides and
the podium pointing to them show that chief orientation of the
room is in the direction of the longitudinal axis, precisely as in
the temples of Ishtar. Another feature worth mentioning is a
true barrel \ault above ground, not underground as in the Royal
cemetery at Ur. The date of VIII can be fixed by the pottery,
Reviews of Boohs
469
which shows that the latest phase falls within the Jemdet Nasr
period and that the earlier phases must, therefore, be contemporary
with the Uruk period. Speiser’s account ends with VIII, since he
did not participate in the excavation of the lower strata, of which
five more have been found. Archaeology is an “ experimental
science ” in the sense that our conclusions can be tested by future
excavations. I am convinced that Speiser’s work will stand the test.
Valentin Mulleb.
Bryn Mawr College.
Le Iscrizioni Antico-Ebraiche Palestinesi. By. David Dibingeb.
Firenze, 1934. Pp. xxix, 361, and 30 Plates.
Diringer’s publication will he welcomed by all those who deal
seriously with the history of Palestine and its antiquities. For
students of Semitic epigraphy it provides a long-needed and highly
important book of reference. The material which it brings together
has been scattered through journals, pamphlets, and other publica-
tions, some of which are not easily accessible. A somewhat similar
collection covering a different period of Palestinian history is the
unpretentious work by Samuel Klein, entitled Judisch-paldstin-
isches Corpus Inscriptionum ( Ossuar Grab- und Synagogenin-
schriften), Wien-Berlin, 1920. This little volume of 106 pages,
with good indexes, but without facsimiles or other illustration,
deals with the later period of Jewish history subsequent to the
destruction of the temple at Jerusalem. Diringer’s work, on the
contrary, is designed to close with the end of the Hebrew monarchy,
and its plan includes every variety of help which could reasonably
be required.
The following subjects are treated in the successive chapters:
The Gezer Tablet; Ostraca (especially those excavated at Samaria) ;
Siloam Inscriptions (the famous inscription of the Tunnel and
also those found at Silwan) ; Jar handles; Seals (these occupying
a considerable part of the volume); Weights and Measures; Mis-
cellany. An Appendix contains a brief chapter on forgeries, and
another on the old Hebrew script, of which tables are given in
Plates XXIX and XXX. The inscriptions are well indexed, with
tables containing the names of persons and the geographical names
470
Reviews of BooTcs
and terms, and also listing conventional signs (numbers, etc.) and
the marks of punctuation.
Dr. Diringer has collected diligently, and the corpus which he
presents includes nearly everything that had been published in this
field up to the time when his manuscript was finished. The inscrip-
tions are numbered consecutively, in their several groups, for con-
venience of reference. In each case there is a transliteration in the
square character, followed by a commentary. A most useful
feature, deserving especial notice, is the very complete and accurate
bibliography accompanying each inscription. Some interpretations
are open to question, as must inevitably be the case in any work of
this nature, but the author’s thorough study and good judgment
are everywhere apparent. I have noted one or two inaccuracies;
for instance, the statement in regard to seal no. 27 that its pub-
lisher dated it in the “ epoca Komana,” whereas he made it con-
temporaneous with the Siloam Inscription.
The facsimiles (28 plates) will of course receive especial atten-
tion. In a few cases these are photographs made from the objects
themselves (i. e., they reproduce the half-tones which had appeared
in former publications), but generally they reproduce drawings of
the inscriptions. One could often wish to have both. As a rule, the
drawings, whether made by Diringer himself or by his predecessors,
are carefully executed and may be relied upon. Sometimes, indeed,
they are rough and not quite satisfactory ; but the difficulties in the
way of such graphic interpretation are well known. All in all, we
have in the work before us an admirable achievement.
Syriac Inscriptions. By Enno Littmann. Leyden: E. J. Brill,
1934. Pp. xi, 70.
Littmann’s volume constitutes Division IY, Section B, of the
Publications (entitled “Syria”) of the Princeton Archaeological
Expeditions to Syria in 1904-05 and 1909. The Nabataean Inscrip-
tions were published by him in 1914; the Arabic and Safaitic are
promised to appear soon.
The volume contains a map of the region concerned (Northern
Syria), and also a special map of the Der Sim'an. The inscriptions
number 64 (aside from the list of 25 proper names painted on the
wall of a church at Sadad, published in Oriens Christianus in
Reviews of Booles
471
1930). About one-third of the inscriptions are dated. They are
mostly of the 6th century; four of them of the 5th; others down
to the 10th. In addition to the ordinary dating by the Seleucid
era, the large proportion of dates according to the era of Antioch
is instructive. Antioch, in all the earliest time, was the head of the
Syriac church.
These documents, it is hardly necessary to say, are very brief,
and sometimes difficult to interpret. They are building inscrip-
tions; lists of names, or single names; pious formulae; isolated
dates. About one-half are graffiti. The dated specimens sometimes
furnish valuable evidence for the study of architecture. There is
some interesting palaeographical material : the letters of the
Syriac script joined in an unusual way, or strung on one continuous
base line, as in the manuscripts; and such peculiarities of orthog-
raphy as the omission of initial alaf, of waw at the end of a 3rd
pers. masc. perfect tense, and of the same letter in the syllable
(this hardly remarkable).
The inscriptions are illustrated by facsimile drawings and occa-
sional photographs. An Index lists both the proper names and the
Syriac words, and an Appendix contains a welcome re-examination
of certain inscriptions previously published.
In general, it is safe to say that what L-ittmann has given here
will hardly be improved upon. Where the few still-visible marks
permit only a conjecture, his guess is likely to be the best one.
I would raise a query only in the case of his longest text. Graffito
no. 28; a curious bit, in an interesting script. He renders as
follows :
I Marzuk, the sinner, make you to know, my brethren, a miracle
that came to pass : On the loth of April [Nlsan, written with s !]
there was a great hailstorm, until there were scattered ( ?) all trees
and crops; but it stopped(?) instantaneously ( ?).
Judging from the facsimile, the last two words are very doubtful ;
but my query concerns the word “ scattered,” which seems unsuit-
able, especially in speaking of trees. I seem to recognize in
Littman’s drawing the root h'r instead of bdr, and as Bar Bahlul
gives the meaning “ devastation ” for bu'ard, I would suggest
“ ruined,” or the like, instead of “ scattered.”
Chaeles C. Torrey.
Yale University.
472
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Studien zur Geschichte und Kultur des Nahen und Fernen Ostens
Paul Eahle zum 60. Geburtstag Uberreicht von Freunden und
Schiilern aus dem Kreise des Orientalischen Seminars der
Universitdt Bonn. Edited by W. Heffening and W. Kirfel.
Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1935. Pp. 231.
Many over the world will share with his immediate friends and
students in congratulations to Professor Kahle at the epoch which
this handsome volume celebrates. The history of text and lexico-
graphy of the Hebrew Bible, the Masora, the versions and the
related history and life of the Samaritans; the maimers and cus-
toms and arts — for example the shadow-plays — of the modem
Islamic world, in which he spent some of his earlier years, and
contributions to the study of Arabic and Turkish documents — for
example the Lost Map of Columbus (see Martinovitch’s review
above, Journal 55, 106) — all these studies have notably distin-
guished him in the realm of scholarship. To this function he has
added to a unique degree that of patron and friend to a host of
students, and through his genuine friendliness and administrative
ability he has made Bonn a centre of Oriental studies, where also
he is the leader in what we in America call a Summer School. His
catholic interest has included the Far East as well, and many of
the articles in the present volume testify to his broadminded
leadership in all things Oriental It would require an encyclopaedic
reviewer to appreciate the twenty-three monographs composing this
volume, of which fourteen come from the hands of his associates
and students at Bonn. The initial article by A. Schott alone be-
longs to ancient history, with its subject, “ Wann entstand das
Gilgamesch-Epos ? ”, of which epic he has just published a fresh
translation in the Reclams Bibliothek ; by a somewhat abstruse
argument he would date the composition about the time of Shulgi
of the last dynasty of Ur. In the field of the Bible Edelmann gives
a contribution on the History of the Masora, Horst on Theft in
the Old Testament, Peters on the Textual History of Ex. 32: 18
(an interesting specimen), Sperber on the Problems of an Edition
of the Septuagmt, coming to rather skeptical conclusions. Engber-
mg gives a History of the Doxologies in the East Syrian liturgy.
Of the nine articles in the Islamic field may be noticed a Fourteenth
Century Mamhk Fatwa on the Status of Christians, by Atiya;
the Construction of Islamic Law Books, by Heffening, the Concept
Reviews of Books
473
of Prophecy in Islamic Theology, by Frick (in the case of
Mohammed, “so wird aus dem echten Propheten ein falscher
Apostel ” ) ; and the study of a Tunisian shadow-play by Levy;
in the East Indian field articles on native medicine, the stone-cult
and resurrection stories by Hilgenfeld, Kirfel, Losch, and a pre-
sentation by Matsumoto of the second chapter of the Suvikran-
tavikrami-Prajnaparamita in the Sanskrit and the Chinese trans-
lation in type. There are two papers on Japanese subjects, that
by Pippon (of Tokyo) treating a Sino- Japanese constitutional
document of the seventh century. The contribution by Wang on
Musical Eelations between China and the West is of general
interest; in addition to the summary of historical facts he holds
the theory that the homeland of musical theory for both Greece
and the Orient was Babylon (p. 219). Also to the history of
culture belong the articles respectively on Chinese porcelain in
Islamic lands, by Eoder, and on porcelain in Chinese medicine,
by Schmitt. A portrait of Dr. Kahle graces the volume, which is
concluded with the valuable Bibliography of his publications, com-
piled by Katharina Korn, pp. 225-231.
Jambs A. Montgomery.
University of Pennsylvania.
Chinese Calligraphy. By Lucy Driscoll and Kenji Toda.
Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 1935. Pp. vii -f- 70.
$ 2 . 00 .
Upon the “ subtle movements of the brush that leave their trace
in changing ink tone,” as succinctly stated by Miss Driscoll in her
Foreword (p. vi) to the book under review, does indeed depend “ the
real quality of calligraphic art.” This monograph on the fore-
most of Chinese arts supplies a tool, both for a stimulation of a
wider appreciation in the west of so sensitive an art, and for the
initiation of the practicing student of art into methods and tech-
nique of the Chinese brush and ink.
For the reader who knows Chinese there are, furthermore, herein
gathered, organized, and discussed selected passages from literary
sources on the art which, with few exceptions, may easily be located
in certain Chinese texts for comparative study. Should the book
fall into the hands of some scholar-calligraphist of Chinese, it is
474
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hoped, as Miss Driscoll desires (p. vi), that it may lure him — or
her — into the more extensive presentation of this creative art.
Into the brief space, however, of the seventy pages (sixty-four in
the body of the text), through an orderly arrangement of the
material as set forth in the table of contents, one may find in this
monograph both an introduction to and an appreciation of a fine
art, as well as practical suggestions for the beginner in its study.
One may read and enjoy a vivid portrayal of the sybolism, the
dynamic ideal, and certain values of the art along with the technique
of calligraphic expression.
Had there been less use of the quotation marks for many single
words and brief phrases without direct reference to any special
text, it would have given more value to those clearly taken from a
passage under discussion. The following examples might have
been among those avoided: “would look better” (p. 2) ; “natur-
ally” and “natural” (pp. 15, 64) ; “one thousand li in length”
(p. 17) ; and “nature” and “human effort” (p. 63). Just what
Chinese term is meant to be translated by “ classic point of view ”
(p. 43), as well as a few other short terms and phrases within
quotation marks, is puzzling. In the cases of “ good ” pattern
(p. 5), of “ modern ” (pp. 14, 25, 26, with retention or substitution
on p. 28), and of “better” (p. 53), in spite of the technical
meaning of the Chinese term translated, the quotation marks might
well have been omitted.
Their use around words and phrases taken directly from passages
translated or discussed (p. 28) does, however, certainly add to the
vividness of the monograph. Like a red thread binding together
the pattern of the book runs the term, “ the idea of the mind,”
found in variant wordings (pp. 6, 27, 53, 63, 64), but with lack of
definite reference in spite of its use in the citation on page fifty-two,
and its association with an authority of another passage (p. 53).
The concept expressed in “ life-movement ” gathers into a whole
the calligraphic art depicted in the monograph. It is like an
envelope which holds the message from the writer of the note
within to the reader of the contents. It is so technical as it is
interpreted m the study that the reader has a desire to find its
Chinese equivalent in transliteration in parenthesis that it may be
sought m the list of miscellaneous terms at the end of the book,
without the necessity of looking up the reference given (pp. 1, 2,
Reviews of BooTcs
475
5, 59, 60, 63, 64, sheng-tung, see H. A. Giles: A English-Chinese
Dictionary, Shanghai, 1912, no. 9865). It is so artistic a point of
view that from it the study as a whole seizes the attention of the
reader.
With allusions and citations continually occurring in Chinese
writings it is very probable that the phrases of the sentence trans-
lated on page forty-two as a quotation from Lord Chung (Chung
Kung) all belong to earlier standard writers. Yii-hu translated as
“ a crystal jar ” is literally “ a jade ” jar (Giles : 4954; Tz'u-yiian,
Commercial Press’ Chinese Encyclopedic Dictionary, Shanghai,
section vii, p. 8). Yao-t'ai (Giles: 12918; Tz'u-yiian, vii, 36; F.
S. Couvreur: Dictionnaire classique, etc., Ho-kien-fou, 1911, p.
223), translated as “ a tower of jewels,” is probably a reference to a
tower (?) that is supposed to have been erected in the mythical
garden of the legendary Hsi-wang-mu, ‘‘West Queen Mother”
(H. A. Giles: Adversaria Sinica, Shanghai, 1914, pp. 1-19). Mu
jo(ju) ch'ing feng (Giles: 8082; Couvreur: p. 583), translated
as “ soothing as a clean breeze ” — perhaps clean is a typographical
error — is a phrase found in the Book of Poetry (“ Greater Odes of
the Kingdom,” Ta-ya [Giles: 12807], III, III, vi, 8: 6 to 8 in the
translation by James Legge: The Chinese Classics, Oxford, 1893-
1895, Yol. IV [book not available for indicating page]).
The following suggestions are added to those made above.
Transliterations in the text without the equivalent Chinese charac-
ters in the lists at the end of the book were noticeable in a few
instances: Shu-p'u (On Calligraphy), p. 15; ma (horse), p. 16;
li, p. 17; mo (ink), p. 18; chih, p. 31, translated “to tear,”
character found in the Chinese text on page thirty-six, Giles : 1931a;
and Chuang Tzu and the Tao-te-ching, p. 64. Two errors in trans-
literation occur : Chung-shan on page forty-five should be Ch‘ung-
shan (Giles: 2930); Tu should be T'u in the title of the work,
T'u-hua chien-wen chih (Giles: 12128). The reviewer would like
to raise the question of the transliteration pai (white, see note 47)
for Giles: 8556, as it is not clear in her mind when the reading po
should be given.
Apparently the translators in the passage on page forty-five
omitted lu (deer, Giles: 7434)), found in the source. Tsan has a
much larger use than the one described in note 9. As typographical
mistakes, there is the omission of the first half of the quotation
marks on page fifty-eight, lines 1-4 ; and the dates for Mao Chin
476
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(p. 44) should, according to the I-nien-lu hui-pien (Gest No. 1358,
T’oung-pao, xxv, 65-81, 1925, viii, 14), be A. D. 1598-1659.
Omissions in pagination for references are at times irritating; the
passages for notes 1, 9, and 33, for example were much more
quickly located than in the eases without page numbering.
The information about Ch’en Ssu in note 4, which had been sent
to Miss Driscoll by Dr. Kiang K'ang-hu may be found in the
Chung-kuo jen-ming ta tzu-tien (Commercial Press’ Cyclopedia of
Chinese Biographical Names, Shanghai, p. 1080) ; he is mentioned
in A. Wylie’s Notes on Chinese Literature (reprint of 1922, p,
151) ; and is included in the collection of short sketches of noted
bibliophiles, Chung-kuo ts‘ang-shu-chia k‘ao-liieh (Gest No. 1417),
compiled and published about 1928, by Yang Li-ch‘eng and Chin
Pu-ying (pp. 92-93).
On dates for Chang Yeh-yuan (p. 10), it may be helpful to note
that in the period A. D. 874-879 he was made Minister of Justice
(see Cyclo. Chinese Biog., p. 943). Thus his Fa-shu yao-lu may
easily have been much later in date than that earlier work written
in A. D. 847, although according to the imperial Ch‘ien-lung cata-
logue ( Ssu-¥u ch'imn-shu tsung-mu, chiian 112, pp. 8b-10a) the
compilation includes citations written no later than the period
A. D. 808-820.
For the reader who knows Chinese there is in the monograph an
especial value in the selections from and the method of handling
the material from Li Shun (pp. 52-59). This contribution in the
e d of Chinese calligraphy will be greatly enlarged by a companion
study by the authors covering a translation and discussion of the
entire contents of “ The Eighty-four Laws.” To the reader who
is no an artist, but who is acquainted with Chinese character, the
simpler but perhaps less artistic styles in Illustrations 1, 2, 6, 7,
- 6 give more pleasure than do the ones wherein it is difficult to
decipher the script. To such a one the delight in Chinese calli-
grap y is enhanced by “ the meaning of the characters as a possible
source for dynamic inspiration” (p. 9)
The Gest Chinese Research Library.
Nancy Lee Swann.
Reviews of Boohs
477
The Literary Inquisition of Ch‘ien-lung. By Lutheb Cabbington
Goodeich. Baltimore : Wavebly Pbess, Inc., 1935. Pp. xii,
275. (American Council of Leabned Societies: Studies
in Chinese and Belated Civilizations, Number 1.)
China reached her last great climax during the reign of Emperor
Chfien-lung, 1735-1796. Considering the vast extent of her terri-
tory and that of her vassal states, her large and rapidly growing
population, the high quality of the art objects produced at this
time, the assembling of valuable collections of paintings and literary
works, the construction of magnificent palaces and temples under
the patronage of a powerful and enlightened ruler, and her inter-
national prestige, — in view of all these tests of greatness, we may
fairly say that the old China had attained the zenith of her develop-
ment. Emperor Chfien-lung rode this wave of splendor so magnifi-
cently that he is often given credit for its brilliance. One popular
writer even says that he was perhaps the greatest emperor the world
has ever seen.
But before we kotow so abjectly before this golden image, might
we not ask whether the panegyrists are really well informed ? Have
they examined all the aspects of his benevolent character ? The very
brilliance of the period has often obscured the fact that not only
was the zenith reached, but also passed in this same reign. If the
glories of this picture are due to the perfections of the Emperor
himself, to whom are we to ascribe the dark blots ?
Mr. Goodrich’s monograph deals with one of the activities of the
Emperor Chfien-lung which has been almost entirely neglected by
writers in western languages, and which has not been adequately
dealt with even by Chinese scholars.
Ch‘ien-lung, in brief, was a despot. For all tbe munificence of his gifts
to literature, he stands accused before the bar of public opinion for his
open interference with the independence of the scholars of his day, for his
deliberate falsification of history, for his malice towards a score of authors
(several deceased long before) and their descendants, and for his repeated
burnings of hundreds of books, woodblocks of many of them included
(page 6).
After citing other instances of the burning of books by order of
the rulers of previous dynasties, and of the punishment of literary
men under the first three emperors of the Ch'ing dynasty and in the
early part of the reign of Ch‘ien-lung, our author gives an account of
478
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the severe literary inquisition of the years 1774 to 1788. He shows
convincingly that this was closely connected with the assembling of
the greatest literary collection in all the history of China, namely
the Ssu K‘u CVtian Shu. This was a collection of what the
scholars under the Emperor’s direction considered the best works
in Chinese literature, well-known classics as well as rare books
which were gathered by imperial command from the whole empire.
It seems to have been the intention of the Emperor to have the whole
collection printed, but when it reached the enormous size of 36,000
volumes containing about 3,000,000 pages, the best he could do
was to have seven manuscript copies made for the imperial palaces
and a few favored cities. The same officials who were combing the
empire for rare books to be forwarded to Peking for this collection
were also required to search for books containing treasonable pas-
sages or slurs on the Manehu dynasty. These officials drew up a
set of rules which should guide the provincial officials in their
search for offensive books and a list of books which were worthy of
destruction. This index, it is estimated, included over 2300 works
listed for total suppression, and 340 more for partial suppression.
Of this total of over 2600 our author lists in Appendix I some 476
works which were condemned hut which have survived to the present
time. The fifteen years of the inquisition, 1774-1788, thus resulted
in the loss of over 2000 works, so that at present we have only
partial and probably distorted sources for the history and literature
of China for the few centuries preceding Chfien-lung’s reign. The
narrative account of this inquisition, its background, methods, aims,
and effects, is included in Part I.
Part II contains imperial edicts, memorials, reports of officials,
and detailed case histories showing how the inquisition affected
certain authors, their families, and their works.
Both parts I and II are well supplied with footnotes giving the
C mese characters for Chinese proper names and numerous refer-
ences to the sources. These full references should prove most useful
m t e further study of the subject which is needed in order to
locate as many as possible of the works now lost but which may yet
be discovered by diligent searching. The bibliography contains
references only to works or articles in constant use by the author,
although many other works are referred to in the footnotes and
I”, review f sees 110 good reason for dividing the index
into two parts, one for general items, and the second for titles to
Reviews of Books
479
Chinese works. They might better be included in one list. One
might also question the advantage of referring in the footnotes to
works listed in the bibliography by number instead of by title in
the more usual way. There are only a few typographical errors,
for instance, a missing hyphen from “ non-canonical ” (p. 4, 1. 24),
a missing question mark (p. 90, 1. 10), “ pass ” for “ past ” (p. 174,
1. 8), and “ be ” for “ by ” (p. 204, 1. 9) .
In general the work bears evidence of thoroughness and scholar-
ship. It reflects credit not only on the author but also upon the
donor and committee in charge of the Willard Straight Fellowship,
on which Mr. Goodrich spent two years abroad. It sets a high
standard for the new “ Studies in Chinese and Related Civiliza-
tions,” which is being sponsored by the American Council of
Learned Societies, and of which this is Number 1. Seldom does a
careful and critical historian shed so much new light upon such a
brilliant and important period in history, or on such a famous
person as the Emperor Chflen-lung.
Carroll B. Malonb.
Desire and the Universe, a Study of Religions. By John K.
Shryock. Philadelphia: The Centaur Press, 1935. Pp.
352, 8vo.
Dr. Shryock, already well known for his books. The Temples of
Anking and their Culls, and The Origin and Development of the
State Cult of Confucius , has, in the book before us, undertaken a
study of the development of religion in the widest sense of the word.
The purpose of the undertaking is to show “ that men have a large
share in creating their ideas of the universe in which they live.
Their motive in so doing is to satisfy their desire for perfection.”
This philosophical position he learned from his teacher in phil-
osophy, Professor E. A. Singer. The book is divided into four
parts. In Part I five chapters are devoted to “ Our Desires and Our
Environment ” in which the relation of desire to environment, the
origin and development of religion, and religion as culture, and the
relation of the individual to society are discussed. In Part II
“ Religious Formulas ” are discussed Here the main themes are
the soul, the state of the dead, and ideas of God. Part III, entitled
“ The Emotions in Religion ” discusses not only the part played
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in religion by the emotions but the relation of religion and ethics,
conscience and sin, and conviction. Part IV, which treats of
“ Eeligion as Behavior ” contains Dr. Shryock’s treatment of such
questions as authority in religion, ceremonies, prayers, communica-
tions from the gods, priesthoods and their equivalent, the diffusion
of religion, and the place of art and images in religion.
The author’s method is that followed in Toy’s Introduction to
the History of Religion. In each chapter the opinions or customs
of the devotees of a wide variety of religions are cited and the
conclusions are thus objectively based on facts. The range of
Dr. Shryoek’s erudition, as shown in these citations is amazingly
wide and accurate for a man of his years. The author’s running
comments on the material are pithy and sane. It may be added,
too, that Dr Shryock has abundantly demonstrated his thesis, and
has done it in a way to help genuine religion. Some of his chapters,
like that on “Authority ” and “ Communications from the Gods ”
are particularly good.
No book is, however, quite perfect, and Desire and the Universe
has, in the opinion of the reviewer, one minor and one major fault.
The minor fault is that, at a number of points the author inveighs
against the older students of the history of religion for holding
what he calls a “ unilinear ” theory of the development of religion,
while he apparently deems himself able, because of his anthropo-
logical studies, to show that every religion has arisen from a mixture
of cultures. Of course all science is progressive, and those who
write from the vantage ground of wider knowledge are always able
to point out some mistakes of pioneers. It happens, however, in
this case that some of us who began our studies earlier than Dr.
Shryock had made the same discovery by researches in our own
fields without the aid of anthropologists. For example, in the
reviewer’s Semitic and Hamitic Origins (of which Dr. Shryock
once wrote a notice, by the way) abundant use is made of the
principle, to which attention is called in the preface.
The other defect of the book ( and in the reviewer’s opinion it is
of major importance) is that in his discussion of the ideas of God
in Chapters 3, 9, 10, and 11 he has a good deal to say of mono-
theism, and his remarks again and again reveal the fact that he is
quite unaware of what monotheism is. This is doubtless due to the
fact that, under the influence of W. Schmidt and the anthro-
pologists, he has discarded the more accurate scientific nomen-
Reviews of Boohs
481
clature of earlier students of the subject, and has included under
a single term things that are disparate. A primitive tribe was not
monotheistic because, in order to give unity to its world, it believed
in a supreme god. There is inherent in real monotheism an element
of hostility to other beliefs. Genuine monotheism differs from this
kind of primitive belief as positive virtue differs from the inno-
cence of childhood. It is something that has been won by struggle.
The intelligent leaders of a monotheistic community are conscious
of its cost, of its worth, and of its difference from polytheism. The
real monotheist denies that other gods have jurisdiction at all or
that they exist. Because Greeks sometimes prayed to Apollo and
Babylonians to Marduk as though other gods did not exist they
were not monotheists, nor did they “betray a tendency to mono-
theism.” It would be as correct to say that the beggar who flatters
me into giving him five dollars by telling me that I am his only
hope and resource, while he conceals from me the fact that by the
same tactics he has just secured five dollars from my neighbor, is
a monanthropist ! F. Max Muller and Hartmann, who understood
the real nature of monotheism, invented the term “ henotheism ”
by which they rightly distinguished such flattering approaches to
the gods in the Big Yeda from monotheism. Later, scholars applied
the same term to peoples like the Hebrews before Amos, who be-
lieved that one god made the world, and that he demanded their
sole allegiance, but who did not deny the existence of other gods.
Through works on the history of religion by masters of the subject
the clear distinction of this scientific nomenclature runs. The late
W. Max Miiller once denied that Ikhnaton was a monotheist,
because, in one of his obscure inscriptions, Muller found what he
took to be the recognition of the deity of another god than Aton.
Wherever real monotheism has existed it is militant and hostile to
the worship of any god but one. It was so in Israel after Amos,
in Zoroastrianism, in Christianity, and in Islam. The kind of fact
on which Dr. Shryock relies to prove that “ primitive men can
and do believe in monotheism” (p. 130) has been known since the
history of religion has been studied. Perhaps the scholars of fifty
and seventy years ago had not amassed as many examples of it as
Dr. Shryock, but they were well acquainted with the phenomenon,
and they had not had the accuracy of their theological conceptions
corrupted by the inaccurate use by anthropologists of theological
terms. Primitive men were henotheists, not monotheists. To
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inaccurately call them monotheists is unscientific and is also un-
fortunate in that it gives aid and comfort to a reactionary type of
theologian who loves to call himself a “ Fundamentalist. The
blurring of this distinction is a grave fault in what would otherwise
be a great book. The work is well printed. I have noticed but one
serious typographical error. On p. 187, the fourth line from the
bottom, “ inquiry ” should be “ iniquity.”
Geoege A. Babton.
A Union List of Printed Indie Texts and Translations in Ameri-
can Libraries. Compiled by M. B. Emeheau. American
Oriental Series, volume 7. New Haven: Amebican Obien-
tal Society, 1935. Pp. xv + 540. $2.00.
This publication satisfies a long-felt need of Sanskrit scholars,
a need not felt so much in other fields as in the Oriental field both
because of the lack of cataloguing facilities and the very exten-
sive literature in this. Gratitude to the American Council of
Learned Societies for its financial backing of this work and to
Dr. Emeneau for his painstaking and eminently satisfactory com-
pilation will long endure, especially if the work is supplemented
from time to time in one way or another. It seems to me that
the only sensible and practical procedure for libraries owning
Oriental collections which are being constantly augmented is to
maintain one or more staff-members who have been sufficiently
trained in the several departments of Oriental studies to do the
requisite cataloguing accurately. If these libraries are connected
with universities — as they are in most cases — offering courses in
Indie and other Oriental languages, their officers should avail
themselves of the opportunity by urging some members of the cata-
loguing staff to take such courses. Any normally intelligent per-
son could in his or her spare time train within a period of two
or three years to satisfactorily catalogue the majority of printed
texts in the Indie or any other division of the Oriental languages.
In the book under discussion the list is complete for the follow-
ing libraries: Library of the American Oriental Society, Boston
Public Library, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Columbia Univer-
sity Library, University of Chicago Library, Cleveland Public
Reviews of Books
483
Library, Library of Congress, Harvard University Library, Johns
Hopkins University Library, McGill University Library, Gest Chi-
nese Besearch Library (housed at McGill University Library),
New York Public Library, Princeton University Library, Univer-
sity of Pennsylvania Library and Yale University Library.
“ Exigencies of time and distance ” unfortunately prevented the
inclusion of the University of California collection. Some small
libraries were visited by Dr. Emeneau, but their collections were
not included because they merely duplicated the nearest large col-
lection. The list comprises texts in Sanskrit, Pali, Prakrit, Apa-
bhramsa and most of the books in the older stages of the vernacu-
lars, except in the case of Urdu, composed before 1800 ; a few
later texts of importance, especially those forming parts of series ;
translations of texts; fragments of Buddhist Sanskrit texts; and
journal articles. Some lithographs are also included but unfortu-
nately not all. This lack obviously accounts for the incompleteness
in the listing of Urdu texts. With this one exception the work
completely meets all demands even to the extent of giving a cor-
rect and thorough hierarchical succession of commentators, which
Indie scholars have so far lacked. The List of the More Important
Serial Publications of Texts will be especially helpful. The index
of authors and of titles at the end of the work completes the story.
It was not possible, of course, to list with each entry the corre-
sponding library catalogue number. Therefore, I urge the above
libraries to make provisions for any necessary revision of their
card catalogue, so that their entries for the works included corre-
spond exactly to the entries in this list. Otherwise there will
surely be considerable difficulty in some cases, as in the past, in
locating a given text even though it is definitely known that it
exists in the library. Also since articles in journals have no library
holdings indicated, it is our fond hope that libraries will cease
cataloguing journals in a more or less haphazard method and
bring themselves to rigid conformity.
Horace I. Poleman.
University of Pennsylvania.
484
Notes of the Society
NOTES OF THE SOCIETY
The Executive Committee has elected the following corporate members:
A. H. Fey A. Sperber
R. Habas Bishop W. C. White
H. L. Norris S. N. Wolfenden
J. A. Pope
The Executive Committee has ratified the following amendments to the
Constitution of the American Council of Learned Societies:
Voted, To amend the Constitution by adding to Article 3 the following
paragraph :
(d) Any member of a constituent society not otherwise a member
of the Corporation who may be elected to a constitutional office of
the Council, but such ex-officio membership shall be only for the
duration of the term of office.
and to instruct the Secretary to communicate this amendment to the
constituent societies for ratification.
Professor Roland G. Kent represented the American Oriental Society at
the commemoration of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the opening of Bryn
Mawr College, November 12, 1935.
The Editors have accepted for publication in the American Oriental Series
Professor L. C. Barret’s edition of Books XVI and XVII of the Kashmirian
Atharva Veda.
NOTES OF OTHER SOCIETIES
AMERICAN COUNCIL OF LEARNED SOCIETIES
Assistance to Publication
The American Council of Learned Societies is prepared to extend assist-
ance in publishing a limited number of meritorious works in the field of
the humanities written by American scholars. It invites its constituent
societies to propose books they deem suitable for assistance, but reserves
the right to consider works submitted by others if the Executive Committee
has accepted them for consideration.
Vorks proposed for publication must be complete in themselves, pref-
erably the results of constructive research presented in the form of volumes
of eomentional size. Important books of reference and critical editions of
valuable texts may also be submitted.
Plans for the manufacture, publication, and distribution of each assisted
W or ’ anc * t "' jr the disposition of the proceeds, must be approved by the
Executive Committee.
Notes of Other Societies
485
Applications for grants in aid of publication, on forms provided for the
purpose, must be received in the Executive Offices of the Council, 907 Fif-
teenth Street, N W., Washington, D. C., on or before March 1, 1936, to be
acted upon in May, 1936. Applications must include descriptions and criti-
cal appraisals of the works proposed, together with full manufacturing
specifications and estimates of cost. No work can be considered of which the
manuscript is not available for examination in completed form.
The Council has announced that the American Council of Learned Soci-
eties research fellowships and larger grants in aid of research have been
discontinued for the present. Small grants will be awarded next April.
LIDZBARSKI FUND COMMITTEE
Professor Charles C. Torrey has been appointed member of the Lidzbarski
Fund Committee, representing the Society. The Committee includes also
according to the specifications of the donor, representatives of the Deutsche
Morgenlandische Gesellsehaft (Enno Littmann), the Societe Asiatique
(Rene Dussaud), and the Royal Asiatic Society (D. S. Margoliouth) . A
prize of 5000 marks will be awarded at every alternate International Con-
gress of Orientalists for an outstanding work in the field of Semitics. The
subject of the first prize-winning essay is to be “ The extension of our
knowledge of Aramaic dialects since the publications of Theodor Noldeke.”
Manuscripts should be submitted to the Business Manager of the Deutche
Morgenlandische Gesellsehaft at least six months before the next Inter-
national Congress. The will of the donor provides also for the award of a
medal to a distinguished Orientalist, regardless of his particular field, at
every other Congress of Orientalists. The first recipient of the Lidzbarski
Medal is Nikolaus Rhodokanakis, of Graz, the well-known authority on
South Arabic. The medal was presented at the recent session in Rome.
The Oriental Institute of the University of Hawaii has recently
issued a prospectus of the courses offered in Oriental Studies, primarily in
Chinese and Japanese. The size of the faculty and the variety of courses
offered compare favorably with the staff and program of American uni-
versities on the continent. On the other hand, the library facilities are
very meagre. Honolulu is ideally situated for the investigation of Far-
Eastern subjects, and the Oriental Institute has great plans for future
development, which it is hoped may be realized.
FONDATION — DE GOEJE.
1. Depuis novembre 1934 le Conseil n’a pas subi de modifications et est
ainsi compose: MM. C. Snouck Hurgronje (president), Tj. de Boer, J. L.
Palache, Paul Scholten et A. J. Wensinck (secretaire-trdsorier) .
486
Notes of Other Societies ; Personalia
2. Le Conseil espere pouvoir eommencer sous peu l’impression d’un tcxte
relatif a geographic medievalede I’Espagne prepare par M. E. L6vi-Pro-
veneal i Algeri, ainsi que d’une etude sur les variantes textuelles du Coran
par M. A. Jeffrey au Caire. En outre, des negotiations ont ete ouvertes
sur la publication d’un texte de Ibn al-Mojawir par M. Lofgren a Upsala.
3. Des dix publications de la Fondation il reste un certain nombre
d’exemplaires que sont mis en vente au profit de la Fondation, chez
l’edite ur E. J. Brill, aux prix marques:
I. The Hamasa of al-Buhturl. Photographic reproduction of the
Ms. . . . with indexes by R. Geyer and D. S. Margoliouth (1909) / 96;
II. The Fakhir of al-Mufaddal ibn Salama ed. C. A. Storey (1915) / 6;
III. Goldziher, Streitschrift des Gazall gegen die Batinijja-Sekte
(1916) /4.50; IV. Bar Hebraeus’s Book of the Dove transl. by A. J.
Wensinck (1919) /4.50; V. C. van Arendonk. De opkomst van het
Zaidietische Imamaat in Yemen (1919) f 6; VI. I. Goldziher, Die
Richtungen der islamischen Koranauslegung (1920) f 10 ; VII. Aver-
roes, Die Epitome ubersetzt . . . von S. van den Bergh (1924) / 7.50;
VIII. Les „livres des chevaux” de Hisam b. al-Kalbi et Muh. b. al-
A'rabi, publics par G. Levi Della Vida (1927) f 5; IX. D. van der
Meulen and H. von Wissmann, Hadramaut (1932) f 9; X. at-Tabar!,
Kitab Ihtilaf al-Fuqaha*. Das Konstantinopler Fragment heraus-
gegeben von J. Schacht (1933) / 4.80.
Leiden, novembre 1935.
PERSONALIA
On October 31. 1935, Professor Syvain Levi, Indologist, honorary member
of the Society died in Paris.
On December 2, 1935, Professor James H. Breasted, director of the
Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, life member of the Society,
died in New York.
FIRDAUSI’S SHAH NAM AH AND THE GENEALOGIA
REGNI DEI 1
F. W. Buckler
The Graduate School of Theology,
Obeblln College
“ I end the story of Shah Yazdagird,
And in Sapandarmad, the day of Ard,
The year four hundred of Muhammad’s Flight,
The last words of this royal book I write.
For ever flourishing be Shah Mahmud,
His head still green, his heart with joy imbued.
I have so lauded him that publicly
And privily my words will never die.
Of praises from the Great I had much store;
The praises that I give to him are more.
May he, the man of wisdom, live for aye,
His doings turn to his content alway.
This tale of sixty thousand couplets I
Have left to him by way of memory.
My life from days of youth to eld hath sped
In talk and hearkening what others said.
When this, my famous tale, was done at last
O’er all the realm my reputation past.
All men of prudence, rede and Faith will give
Applause to me when I have ceased to live,
Yet live I shall; the seeds of words have I
Flung broad-cast and henceforth I shall not die.” 2
In these words, Firdausi concluded his task of writing the Shah-
namah or Book of Kings, when in sight of fourscore years on
1 Presidential Address, delivered at the meeting of the Middle West
Branch of the Society, in Ann Arbor, April 25th, 1935, in commemoration
of the Millennium of the birth of the poet Firdausi.
* The Shahnamah of Firdausi, done into English by Arthur George
Warner and Edmond Warner, London, 1905-1925, ix, p. 122. I have confined
my references and quotations to this edition, as the most accessible that
is available. The references to the Persian text are given in the margin.
In future references it will be cited Firdausi (Tr v W/pU'" _
'T'jr " i
, . wofci.t.
2
F. W. Buckler
February 25th, a. n. 1010. He was, according to an earlier line,
seventy-one years of age, from which it would follow that he was
born about the year 910 a. d. but the general view inclines to a
much earlier date. Firdausi may have been born anytime between
932 and 941 A. d . 3 The date accepted by His Majesty Ridha Shah
Pahlavi is 934 a. d. In the year that is past, probably the most
significant event was Persia’s celebration of the millennium of her
Epic Poet’s birth in October last. From the Seven Climes, when-
ever the Shahnamah is known, the tributes tendered in his praise
have endorsed the pride of his concluding boast.
In the quest for a topic for my Presidential Address, it appeared
to be fitting and proper to bow to the all compelling decree of
destiny, and to accept the honour, so graciously bestowed by the
Members of the Middle- West Branch of this Society, as the oppor-
tunity to be the mouthpiece of the Society’s tribute of homage, and
to attempt an ascription of the glory due to the Poet of the Divine
Glory of the King. Others, better fitted than I, have praised his
poetic art. To me falls the humbler lot of assessing the place of
his Epic in the annals of that earthly manifestation of the King-
dom of God, inherent in the person of the King of Kings, whose
Khilafat is alike direct from God, as it extends from remotest
antiquity to the present occupant of the Throne of the Glory, the
Shadow of God on earth, His Majesty Ridha Shah Pahlavi.'
Before the greatness of the throne and the grandeur of Firdausi’s
own achievement the mere historian may well stand appalled, and,
conscious of his own defects, sue for mercy at the threshold of
the Grace. He can, however, use the opportunity of his muqad-
damaior the appropriate purpose of acknowledging the debt of
the West to those scholars whose labours have rendered the Epic
accessible and intelligible. Pre-eminent among these stands Theo-
dor Noeldeke whose edition of Tabari and essay Das IraniscJie
Nahonalepos 4 lay the foundations of any approach; the editors of
the text, Mohl, Mullers, Lumsden and Turner-Macan, and for the
Ibid., I, 24; Th. Noldeke, “ Das Iranische National Epos ” in Grundriss
dei- iPhilologie, herausgegeben v. W. Geiger u. E. Kuhn, Strass-
LUeral n t f Qrun * r - /r H, 158 ff.; E. G. Browne, A
Firdausi 135ff ' : Encyclopaedia °f 110, s.v.
d ^ deke ’ G «^ icftt « <*• P^ser u. Araber z. Zeit. d. Sasaniden, aus
d. arab. Chron. d. Tabari ubersetzt. Leyden, 1879 and v. supra, n. 3.
Firdausi’s “ Shahnamah ”
3
English speaking world, the translations of Champion, Atkinson
and particularly Arthur and Edward Warner . 5 I would commend
the last piece of work as a translation at once faithful and literary,
accompanied by invaluable notes and appendices, to any who would
attempt to understand the meaning of the Kingdom of God on
earth in the kindred Shahnamah , which has given rise to the Four
Gospels of the Christian Church, and to the Messianic Hope,
which they claim to satisfy . 6
The task before us is to attempt an assessment of Firdausi’s
place in the Genealogy of the Kingdom of God on earth. It is
not quite the same thing as the estimate of Firdausi as the poetic
historian of the idea, though some consideration of that question
of necessity forms part of the scheme. The real problem is to dis-
cover his place in history, rather than his place among historians
or his value as an historical authority. I hope to show, in the
time available, that it is here that his significance really lies. The
Shahnamah belongs to the category of works, which mark the
foundations of sovereignty and the declaration of the basis of
Divine Eight by which Bangs rule. Its kindred are the Zamyad
Yast, Deutero-Isaiah, The Boole of Daniel , the Gospels, S. Augus-
tine’s j De Civitate Dei , Marsiglio of Padua’s Defensor Pads , and
the succession of works to which the Shahnamah itself gave rise —
the Zafarnamah, the Akbamamah and the monuments of Mughal
monarchy. Like the Ahharnamah , the Shahnamah is in reality a
Declaration of Independence . 7 It is Persia’s declaration that her
Kingship derives its authority not from the comparatively recent
Khi ldfatu’rasuli’lldhi , but from the immemorial antiquity of the
Khildfatu’lldh whose succession dates back to Zartust and be-
yond, while its vicegerency is ever present in the possession of the
farr — the hvareno Kavaem, the Divine Glory of the Kayanians.
'V. supra, n. 2, Firdausi (Tr. W. ), I, 76-87; Grundr. Jr. Phil., II, 206 ff.
• Cf. my paper “ Regnum et Ecclesia,” Church History, III (1934), pp.
24 ff.
7 For a discussion of the position underlying Abu'l-Fazl’s Akbamamah v.
my paper “ A New Interpretation of Akbar’s ‘ Infallibility ’ Decree of
1579” J. R. A. S. (1924), pp. 591-608. Also a discussion by Professor
'Abdu’l-Ghanl in A History of Persian Language and Literature at the
Mughal Court (Allahabad, 1929-), III, 243-46. For reasons which I notice
later, I feel his rejection of the Shahnamah in favour of the Zafarnamah as
the foundation of the Akbamamah is unfortunate.
4
F. W. Buchler
Both Firdausi and Abu’I-Fazl had the same task to perform for
their respective monarehs and states — their deliverance from the
thraldom of an unrecognized Muslim authority by means which
would not undermine the authority of the King under whom they
lived, and the appeal of both is ultimately to the same source — the
Kayan Glory ‘ that cannot be forcibly seized,’ and the victory of
Ahuramazda’s deputy (Khallfah) over Azi Dahhak, of the King-
dom of the Light over the powers of Darkness. Its power is seen
in the title and it pervades the language of Ghulam C A1I Khan’s
work, the Shah ‘Alamnamah. at the end of the eighteenth or the
beginning of the nineteenth century, when in face of defeat and
usurpation, he portrays Shah ‘Adam II (1761-1806) as the true
vice-gerent of Allah in the throes of his struggle with Ahriman
and Azi Dahhak; and in Shah Adam’s own works under the
takhallus, Aftab.
The subject falls into five main divisions : First, the historical
setting of Firdausi’s life and work and his attitude to the develop-
ments which were taking place in his own lifetime; secondly, the
historical, mythological and theological background of Firdausi’s
argument, together with its principal western offshoots; thirdly,
the Sunni Muslim position, which appears in the traditions of the
Abbasid Caliphate of Baghdad, and the strength of Persian influ-
ence even in Arabic sources; fourthly, the occasion and setting of
the Shahnamah ; and fifthly, the significance of the Shahnamah
in subsequent political theory and developments in the Muslim
world. A ithin the limits of this survey, I hope to show the unity
of the system of monarchy and consequently the unity of its
literary expression not only in the millennium and a half which
separates the capture of Babylon by Cyrus and the year of Fir-
dausi s birth, but also in the subsequent millennium in which the
Orient has lived and thought in terms of his Shahnamah , which
is the Epic of the manifestation of the Glory of the Kingdom of
God on earth.
First, the historical setting of Firdausi’s life and work.
< * ?. C - f0 . r f ? e . mkMle ° f the ninth cen tury a. d., the decay of the
Abbasid Caliphate had set in, beyond any hope of stay or check,
so that after a century from the battle of the Zab (750 a.d.), the
forces of Persian national life, at first harnessed and then re-
pressed, were free once more to assert themselves. The evidence
Firdausi’s “ Shahnamah ”
5
of their re-appearance is varied. The ancient Persian families,
which had adopted the Muslim faith for political reasons, stood
forth as leaders in the houses of Tahir and Saman. The House of
Ghazna claimed descent from Yazdagird III and the Samanids
from Bahram Chuban, while the popular movement found its ex-
pression in the lead of Ya‘qub the Coppersmith and his dynasty
(867-903 a. d.). With the revival of Persian national family life,
there emerged from their hiding, the heroic traditions of the
Sasanian nobility, and these appeared not only in a revival of
Pahlavx literature, of which the Denkard is evidence but also in
the revival of the Shiat-'Ali in a variety of forms, particularly in
the preservation of the marriage of Husain with ‘ the Gazelle/ a
daughter of the Sasanian House, awarded to the son of ‘All by
‘Umar. 8 Throughout, the note of the appeal is to the House of
8 For the claims to Sasanid royal ancestry : of the Ghaznavids, from
Yazdagird III v. Muhammad Nazim, Sultan Mahmud of Ghazna (Cambridge,
1931), p. 34, n. 1; of the Samanids from Bahram Chuban, ibid., pp. 180 ff.;
and Ene. Islam, IV, s. v. Samanid : of the Buwayhids, E. G. Browne, op.
cit., I, 364; cf. the descent of Ardashir Papakan from the Kayan Sasan,
v. Firdausi (Tr. W.), VI, 197 ff. and refs.; G. Rawlinson, The Seventh
Monarchy (1876), pp. 32-33 and notes; Cl. Huart, La Perse Antique
(1925), 147 ff.; Enc. Brit. (11th ed.), II, 448. Cf.
“ Wilt thou treat Yazdagird, the king of kings.
Worse than malignant Turks . . . ?
. . . From sire to sire his ancestors
Were mighty men and compassers of wisdom
From Nushlrwan, the Shah, back to Ardshir,
While, seventh backward from Ardshir, Sasan
The world-lord, had the crown, for God entrusted
To him the Kaian crown, and all the kings
Were of that glorious race.”
Firdausi (Tr. W.), IX, 105, and n. 1.
For the date of the Dinkard v. E. W. West in Grundr. Ir. Phil., II, 91,
“ According to statements contained in the last section of Book III, its
compilation was commenced by Atur-farnbag, son of Farukhzat, a leading
high-priest of the Mazda-worshippers, who had a religious disputation with
Abalish in the presence of the Khalifah Al-Mamun who reigned in 813-833.
And the work was completed by Aturpat, son of Hemet, who is mentioned
in the Iranian Bundahish, XLV, 11, as a contemporary of Zat-sparam, who
is known to have been living in 881, when the third Epistle of Manushtshihar
was written.”
For the story of Shahrbanu Begam v. E. G. Browne, op. cit., I, 130-134.
The whole subject of the Persian revival in the tenth century a. d. is
treated fully by E. G. Browne, op. cit., I, 339-480.
6
F. W. Buchler
Sasan, and the preservation of the line of legitimist right to the
throne of Persia by lineal descent, which resides in the hidden
succession from the Kayans to the Sasanids, the succession in-
herent in the Imams and the Sayyids, and, finally in ‘ the Hidden
Imam and the doctrine of the Mahdi.’
Nor is the legitimist descent, derived from birth, the only way.
Persian Kingship is ultimately a mystical concept. It is possible,
therefore, for it to lie hidden in mystic orders, whether they be the
order of the fire-priests of Persepolis or the Sufis of Gilan, whence
sprang the Safawi dynasty . 0
The victories of the Ghaznawid House had brought to comple-
tion the process by which Persia was once more united politically,
under a King of her own national stock. Mahmud’s claim to
descent from Yazdagird III is, in itself, sufficient to account for
the favourable view of Yazdagird and the air of hostility towards
the Arabs, who belong to Turan, whose king is AzI Dahhak. One
reference is sufficient to illustrate this point . 10 When Kustam the
son of Hurmuzd, on the eve of Kadlslyya, his last fight with the
Arabs,
“observed the stars and smote
His head because it was a day of bale,”
he wrote to his brother as follows
“ When I agnized this secret of the sky —
That it assigneth us but grievous travail —
I wept right sorely for the Iranians
And burned for the Sasanians. Woe is me
lor head and crown, for state and throne, and woe
For majesty, for fortune, and for Grace
Because hereafter will defeat betide them
From the Arabians, the stars will not turn
Save to our hurt, and for four hundred vears
None of our royal race will rule the world ! ” 11
* F ° r the " eneal °gy tie firepriests of Persepolis and the origins of
the Sasanid claim to Kayan descent v. Cl. Huart, La Perse Antique, pp.
nC ' nt ^ffth ed.),II,418; D. D. Peshotan Sa.nja.ua, The Kamdme
lArtakhshir i Papakan. Bombay, 1896, pp. ii f ., viii f„ 2, App, p. 6; on the
r / Vna -' t ; ° £ Gllan and their claim to Saiyid descent, E. G. Browne,
Lit. Hist. Persia, III, 464; also v. supra n 8
Firdausi (Tr. W.), IX, 73. IX , 73-4.
Firdausi’s “ Shahnamah ”
7
The four centuries reaches its term in Mahmud of Ghazni and
the completion of the Shahnamah. The interim
“ Hath been the epoch of ‘Umar, made known
The Faith, and to a pulpit changed the throne.” 12
It is, in the eyes of Firdausi, a parallel of the Ashkanian (Arsaeid)
period, when
“ Folk called them ‘ Tribal Kings.’ Two centuries passed,
And thou hadst said : ‘ There is no Shah.’ ” 13
This fact determines the approach of Firdausi to his task. He was
probably a Shfah, and therefore had less sympathy for ‘ the epoch
of ‘Umar ’ than for the preceding royal house of Sasan. Mahmud
was a Sunni , so that it was necessary to temper the Shfah anti-
pathy to the second Khali fall and to find the necessary compensa-
tion in the words he placed in the mouth of Bahram, and the other
loyal supporters of Yazdagird III. The course he adopted, how-
ever, placed him on the horns of a dilemma, for his enemies at the
Court of Mahmud were able to point to both his Shfah belief and
his undue affection for the Fire-worshipper. 14 His satire on
Mahmud contains his reply to these criticisms.
“ Ho ! Shah Mahmud who hast as victor trod
The climes ! if man thou fearest not fear God,
For there were many Shahs ere thou hadst birth
Who all were crowned monarchs of the earth
And all of them pre-eminent o’er thee
In treasure, host, throne, crown, and dignity.
They did no act that was not good and right.
Went not about to swindle and to spite,
Dealt with their subjects justly and were naught
If not God’s worshippers.”
And
“ But is there, tell me this, one viler yet
Than he whose heart against ‘All is set ?” 15
The appeal of Firdausi, then, is to the Glory of the House of
12 Ibid., IX, 121, cf. p. 76. 13 Ibid., VI, 210.
14 Th. Noldeke, “ Das Iranische Xationalepos,” Grundr. Ir. Phil., II, 153 ff. ;
E. G. Browne, op. cit., II, 129 ff.; Firdausi (Tr. W. ), I, 40.
15 Firdausi (Tr. W.), I, 40.
8
F. W. Buckler
Sasan, particularly to Hushlrwan, whose justice becomes prover-
bial even among the MuslimTn, against all invaders. His object is
to place its Glory on the background of immemorial right, sub
specie aeternitatis. Consequently, the pre-Sasanian history and
mythology is forced into the mould of the Sasanid, while, even the
Sasanian history is subject to that form of compression or synthesis
which marks the form of the heroic story or saga. For, it must he
remembered that Firdausi’s object was not to write a history of
the Kings of Persia but rather to produce the King’s Book, an
Eikon Basilike, — the Shalmamah, — in order to enshrine the
memory of the Glory of the Kingdom, at the time when its politi-
cal realization was rendered imminent by the triumphs of Yazda-
gird Ill’s descendant Subuktigin, the father of Mahmud of
Ghazni, to whom the poem is dedicated . 16
The result of this treatment shows itself in several ways. First,
there is a certain foreshortening of the background. This effect
destroys the value of Firdausi as an historian at a variety of points.
His tendency to concentrate into the term Turan all the Asiatic
enemies of Iran is an example. The treatment of the Rumi feud,
along similar lines, is another case in point. They fix, however,
the Persian point of view in his own time, but, what is more im-
portant, they fit into the traditional Persian heroic scheme of the
King and the Enemy, AzI Dahhak . 17 This form is ultimately
Median, Magian and Zoroastrian, and it is given an ultimate theo-
logical form in the struggle between Ahura Mazda and Ahriman
for the possession of the Glory. The Shahndmah , indeed, is the
most complete account of the struggle in existence. It is, more-
over. oriental in its entirety, and free from any serious adultera-
tion from Hellenistic or Arabic sources, for though it is certain
that Firdausi was not ignorant of Arabic, yet he appears not to
have written in the language, and to have had little sympathy with
the spirit of the Arabic interpretations of his theme . 18
18 0n the P laee of the Kay an Glory or Grace (hvareno Kavaem), Firdausi
(Tr. W.), passim, particularly Jamshld (I, 129-140); cf. Zamyad Fast,
S. B. E., XXIII, 286-309. On Nushirwan, v. Firdausi (Tr. W.) , VIII, passim ;
cf. Rawlmson, The Seventh Monarchy , pp. 379 ff. and Sa'adi, The Scroll of
Wisdom, ed. A. X. Woollaston (Wisdom of the East Series ).
For an example of Firdausi s treatment of Roman affairs v. Firdausi
(Tr. W.), VI, 294 ff.
18 V- E - G - Browne - «*• Bist. Pers., II, Hoff.; Firdausi (Tr. W.), I, 47.
Firdausi’s “ Shahrmmah ”
9
Out of this consideration emerges perhaps the most important
conclusion concerning Firdausi’s place in the Gencalogia Regni
Dei. He marks a point of crystallization of the traditions, oriental,
in general, and Persian, in particular, concerning the proper em-
bodiment in letters and saga of the reign of the King. The Royal
Hero King is faced from his birth with the machinations of
Ahriman, either directly in his diabolic (Firdausi frequently uses
Iblis for Ahriman) form or indirectly through the mediation of
Azi Dahhak, and on the successful manipulation of the situation
depends the rest of the reign. His knowledge of the method of
disposing of the Enemy — his wisdom and £ justice ’ — are the
accompaniments and outward manifestations of the possession of
the Glory. For that reason Harpagus advised Cyrus to pretend to
be lacking in wisdom, because it would throw doubt on the Magian
award and, thereby, serve to protect him from Azi Dahhak
(Astyages) . 19
The presence of this normal form of ‘ King Book ’ or Shah-
namah suggests kinship in the works in which its development
appears, and that suggestion, confirmed by other elements, amounts
to certainty. This point is best illustrated by the place of Cyrus
in Western literature. The royal shepherd motif appears in all
forms of the Cyrus legends, and it is ultimately merged into the
Magian recognition — or its national priestly counterpart — and the
proof of wisdom, revealed at the age of ten, twelve or sixteen. Its
final proof lies in the complete victory, whereby Azi Dahhak is
overthrown and Babylon — or Baghdad — is captured. The treat-
ment of Herodotus and Xenophon bears all the marks, not of his-
torical but of heroic treatment of Cyrus, and it is as offshoots of
the Cyrus Shahnamah that they should be regarded . 20 The same —
ls Enc. Brit. (11th ed.), II, 821a (Astyages), VII, 706bff. (Cyrus).
Both articles are by Eduard Meyer. I suggest that the Armenian identifica-
tion with Azi Dahhak, though its appearance in literature is late, reflects
Persian opinion and contains the key to the conflict of names. Cyaxares
the Mede, as the enemy of Persia would be known as Azi Dahhak in
Persia prior to the conquest of Media by Cyrus. For a recent discussion
of the question in another connexion v. H. H. Rowley. Darius the Mede
and the Four World Empires in the Book of Daniel, Cardiff, 1935, pp. 30 ff.
10 Firdausi (Tr. W.), II, 328 ff. Xenophon’s Cyropaedia is, indeed, an
excellent account of the consequences of the possession of the Royal Glory
( hvarend Kavaem ) in righteous rule, wisdom, and the ability to interpret
the will of the deity.
10
F. W. Buckler
and more — is true of the passage assigned to deutero-Isaiah, where
we find not only the normal Cyrus motif, but also the suffering
Servant, which in Slyawush is as characteristic of Persian as of
Jewish thought. In addition, the assignment of the divine source
of the Kingship of Cyrus to Yahweh is characteristic of the con-
ception of the divine authority of the ‘ King of Kings ’ represented
by Cyrus in contrast with Cambyses, a fact noticed in the Egyptian
source, Pseudo-Callisthenes, in connection with Alexander the Great,
and endorsed by Josephus in his — probably apocryphal — story of
Alexander’s proskynesis before the High Priest . 21
The most important western offshoot of this tradition, however,
is the Isa-namah — or Jesus Saga — of which the Gospels are off-
shoots. The Fourth Gospel, in form and content, belongs definitely
to the category and family of which Firdausi’s Shahnamah is the
most illustrious collection. The saga behind the Synoptic Gospels
is clearly an offshoot of the form of Cyrus biography and the
Zarlust-nama. The revelation of the Glory before birth, at the bap-
tism, on the Mount of Transfiguration and at the Tomb on the
Third Morning, combined with the tongues of flame descending on
the diadochol ( Jchulafa ) of the Kingdom represent the funda-
mental element of the Epic form of the Shahnamah .- 2 In addi-
tion, we have the varied forms of the attacks of Ahriman, claim-
ing to control the Glory and to have it in his gift , 23 or, indirectly,
through Azi Dahhak (Astyages) represented by the Edomite
Herod or the Ruml Pontius Pilate or the Herodians who combined
both the Turdnl and Ruml positions . 24 More striking still are the
shepherd and Magi, in their recognition of His possession of the
Kavan Glory, at a time when according to Persian tradition — also
illustrated by Firdausi’s cavalier treatment of the Arsacids — the
Glory lay hid .' 3 The story of the Gospels turns on the attempt to
annex the Glory that cannot be forcibly seized,’ and Jesus the
"For the suffering Servant motif in the Shahnamah see the account of
Siyawush, Firdausi (Tr. W.), II, 191 ff.; the Jewish assignment of Cyrus’
Kingship to Yahweh (Is. 41); for the episode of Alexander the Great
and the High Priest v. Josephus, Antiq., XI, 8, 5.
my P a P er ttegnum et Ecclesia, particularly pp. 33 ff.
* he Tem P tat i°ns (Lk. IV, 5-7), cf. Zamyad Yast, VII, 34 ff. ; IX,
57 - 64 , S. B. E., XXIII, 293 ff., 300 ff.).
” Cf. Zamyad Tost, IX, 61 ff., XII-XIII
" Firdausi (Tr. W.), VI, 210 ff., cf. vv . 193 ff.
Firdausi’s “ Shahndmah ”
11
Christ is portrayed as one who is wiser than JamshTd. The wis-
dom, royal dikaiosune, the organic nature of the Kingdom, delega-
tion of powers and the royal feast and the anabasis against the
enemy all appear, while in the death on the Cross, we have a sug-
gestion of Afrasiyab’s capture and murder of the King’s son
Siyawush, from whom came the Glory to Kai Khushrau . 26 If this
kinship is once recognized, it will be seen that in the Alexander
Biographies of the West — the Sikandarnamah — in the lives of
Cyrus (the Great and the Younger) — the works of Dio Cassius,
the historian, and the Augustan histories, but particularly in the
Gospels, we have a Western branch of the tradition whose Eastern
branch is represented by Firdausi’s Shahndmah. This fact is of
the utmost importance for, together with the Book of Daniel ,
which is the Zamyad Yast of Hebrew literature, the literature here
indicated attests the continuity of the Kingly tradition and Kingly
Glory, through the Arsacid period, when it was transmitted from
the Kayan Sasan to Ardashir by the arthavans of Persepolis . 27
For the Christian scholar, it transforms Firdausi’s Shahndmah ,
from a remote Oriental Epic into a first hand commentary on the
Gospels, despite the millennium which separates their Shah from
the Epic of the Kayan Shahs. It also serves to explain — as the
modern Formgeschichie theories fail to do — the form of the Chris-
tus-saga and its derivatives — the Four Gospels. It assigns to Mar-
cion of Pontus, whose Kings claimed descent from Cyrus and
Darius, his proper place in Church History and transforms his
‘ Gospel ’ from a mangled version of Saint Luke to a book of the
Shah-Isa-ndmah opening with the descent of the Kayan Glory,
while the Gnostics culminating in Manes represents a Magician or
Zoroastrian attempt to assess the theme in terms of the theology
of Persia. There we must leave the western offshoot of the Koyal
Genealogy consummated in the Shahndmah, and turn East again . 28
26 For the conception of organic unity and function underlying the theory
of Eastern Kingship v. my paper “ The Oriental Despot,” A tig. Theol.
Rev., X, (1928), 238-249; for a further example v. my note, “The Human
Khil'at,” The Sear East and India, XXXIV (1928), 269-270. Since these
papers were published, R. Otto has reached the same conclusion, apparently
independently, Reich Oottes und Menschensohn (Munich, 1934), pp. 9 ff.,
74 ff. For the fight against the enemy ( Ahriman or AzI Dahhak ) , v. my
paper, “The Meaning of the Cross,” Ang. Theol. Rev., XII (1930), pp. dll-
422 and “ Regnum et Eeclesia,” p. 31, n. 52.
27 V. supra, nn. 8-9. 28 “ Regnum et Eeclesia,” p. 20, n. 19.
12
F. W. Buckler
Further East, in Baghdad, the Muslim Babylon, there is a simi-
lar movement visible under ‘Abbasid rule. The ‘Abbasids bad
succeeded in overthrowing the Umayyads by means of Persian sup-
port, and their dynasty marks the beginning of the wholesale intro-
duction of Persian officers and institutions into the Caliphate. 29
But, the party ( shl'at ) of ‘All was destined to fare no better than
under the preceding dynasty, for when once the ‘Abbasids had
gained their end, they proceeded to repress both the Shtah and
the Persian. The downfall of the Barmakids under Harunu’l-
Rashld can be regarded as the final act of this line of policy. 30
Nevertheless, the ‘Abbasids were ready to adopt the same basis of
oecumenical authority as that which runs through Hebrew tradi-
tion from Cyrus to Jesus of Nazareth, and to annex the Kayan
Glory, by virtue of their conquest of Elam. Our evidence for this
policy is found in ‘All Tabari’s The Book of Religion and Empire,
written at the command and with the assistance of the Caliph
Mutawakkil (847-861 a. n.). 31 In this work the claims of past
heroes from Cyrus to Alexander and beyond are examined, but in
every case the words of the Hebrew Prophet point ‘ without doubt ’
to ‘ the kingdom of the Arabs ’ ‘ and more especially to this ‘Ab-
basid Kingdom.’ 32 The work, in fact, is the ‘Abbasid counterpart of
the Book of Daniel, and it annexes to Baghdad, the Glory of Baby-
lon in the same manner and by the very words used by the Hebrew
Prophets to annex it to Jerusalem. 33 This work was written prob-
ably in 855, eighty years before the birth of Firdausi, on the eve
of the overthrow of Mutawakkil, whose fate, in the eyes of Persian,
Jew and Christian, must have resembled that of Belshazzar. 34 The
time was ripe for the fulfilment of the words of the Prophet
Muhammad concerning Hasan the son of ‘All “ This my son is a
Sayyid and God will reconcile through him two Muslim parties.” 35
In 839 at Amul was born the historian Al-Tabari, who lived
until 923 A. D. His work Ta'rlkh al-Rusul wa’l-muluk was trans-
V. my Harunu’l-Rashid and Charles the Great (Cambridge, Mass., 1931),
p. 17, and n. 1.
*°E. G. Browne, op. cit., pp. 252-261.
“ Ali Tabari , Kitabu’l-Din ica’l-Daulat, ed. A. Mingana (Manchester,
1923), and translated by him under the title The Book of Religion and
Empire (Manchester, 1922).
“ IUd ’ Tr - PP- 45 -46, 137-138. » Ibid., pp. ix ff
" Ibid., pp. 126-7. 45 Ibid., p. 44.
Firdausi’s “ Shahnamah ”
13
lated into Persian in 963 by order of the Samanid wazir Abu "All
Muhammad al-Bal'aml, and supplemented considerably in the
earlier period. The part of the Arabic work dealing with the
Sasanid period was translated into German in 1879 by Noeldeke. 36
This work, in its Persian form, was either one of Firdausi’s
sources or derived from the same sources, particularly the Persian
Khu dainama or Book of the Kings. The significance of the work
lies in the fact that the historian Tabari gave to the Muslim world
the historical vindication of the Sasanids and their predecessors,
which is the counterpart of the theological and apologetic vindica-
tion of the ‘Abbasids by the other Tabari. In the writings of his
younger contemporary, Ma c sudi, who died in 956 a. d. after a life
spent in travel, we find the same attention paid to the Sasanids,
and a notice of the literary activity, in the Kitah al-Tanbih, sum-
marizes the literary activity of Persian national writers in 956 A. d.,
when Firdausi was thirty years of age. 37
The Persians have a book entitled Kuban Namah, in which are related
all the dignitaries of the Persian monarchy, to the number of six hundred,
classified according to the rank that has been assigned to them. This
book is part of the ‘Ain Namah, which is a book of (administrative)
regulations. It is a volume comprising several thousand pages and complete
copies can only be found with the Mubad and other persons invested with
some degree of authority. . . . Those occupied with the history of the
Kings and the peoples differ in opinion on the origin of the Persians, the
names of their Kings and the length of their reigns. We furnish the
traditions of the Persians themselves and neglect the information given
by other peoples — Israelites, ancient and modern Greeks, since the opinions
which they follow are contrary to Persian tradition. It is, indeed, fairer
to follow the Persians in this matter, when the distance of time and the
multiplicity of events have weakened their traditions, caused the memory
of their glories to fail and their institutions to perish.
Ma‘sudl proceeds to indicate the glories of ancient Persia, stat-
ing that he had seen at Istakhr, in 916 a. d. a great book contain-
33 Under the title Geschichte der Perser und Araber zur Zeit der
Sasaniden, Leyden, 1879. For details v. pp. xiii-xxviii. This work alone,
together with its Persian translation is sufficient evidence of the interest
in Ancient Persian Kingship at the time when Firdausi took over the
task of Daqlql (c. 976), v. pp. xxiii ff.
3T Ma'sudi, Kitabu’l-Tanbih tca’l-ishraf, ed. M. J. de Goeje ( Bibl. Geog.
Arab , VIII), Leyden 1893, translated under the title Le Livre d’Avertisse-
ment, pp. 149 f.
14
F. W. Buckler
ing the lives of the Kings of Persia, their reigns, the accounts of
their buildings, and other details, which he had been unable to dis-
cover either in the Khudainamah , the ' Ainnamah , the Kuhan-
ndmah or any other work. It contained portraits of the Sasanids,
twenty-five men and two women, and with each portrait was the
biography of the monarch, both of his public and private life,
based on documents recovered from the treasure of the Persian
Kings. The work was completed in 722 a. d. and translated from
Pahlavl into Arabic for the Khali fall Hisham . 28
Ma‘sudi, then, gives us both a contemporary statement and a
convenient summary of the state of knowledge and the authorities
available for the use of Firdausi and his younger contemporary
Al-Tha‘alibi, whose monumental work Ghurar al-Siyar is the
Arabic, prose counterpart of the Shahnamah , 39 (The portion re-
ferring to the Kings of Persia has been edited and translated into
French by Zotenberg, the translator of the Persian Tabari.) It is
probable that Al-Tha‘alibi and Firdausi both died in or about the
year 1021 A. d., 40 and, with this notice of him and of the Bagh-
dadi Ma'sudi, as the Arabic representatives, respectively, of the
Iraqi and Persian strands of Persian traditions, we must pass from
the setting of Firdausi’s life to his work. It may, however be per-
tinent to remark, that Al-Tha‘alibi frequently gives the sources
used by Firdausi with a greater degree of accuracy than Tabari . 41
The problems of chronology and myth which beset the content
of the Shahnamah have invaded the story of the life of its Poet,
and, however great is the implicit testimony of Persia’s apprecia-
tion of Firdausi, it is equally disconcerting to any attempt to de-
termine the main points of his life. It is, however, not necessary
here to enter into any detail.
When Firdausi was about forty years of age, the Persian poet
Daqiqi was assassinated by one of his slaves. The date is uncer-
tain, and the possibilities range from 952 a. d. (Huart) to 976
a. d. (Warner). Huart’s date is certainly too early, as it is not
easily reconciled with the date of the Shahnamah and its dedica-
38 Ibid., pp. 151 ff.
38 Histoire dfis Rois des Perses, par AI-Tha’alibi, texte arabe publie et
traduit par H. Zotenberg, Paris, 1900.
Enc. Islam , s. v. atb-Tha alibi. Zotenberg in bis Preface confuses two
entirely different persons named Tha’alibi,
“Enc. Islam, loc. cif.; v. Zotenberg’s introduction, pp. xviii-xliv.
Firdausi’s “ Shahnamah ”
15
tion, after thirty five years’ work, to Mahmud, whose accession
took place in 997 A. d., and on the whole a date between 970 and
976 a. d. is preferable. 42 Daqiql was, like Firdausi a native of Tus,
which is in the region of the southern coast of the Sea of Qazwin
(the Caspian Sea). This region was, so to speak, an asylum and
refuge of Persian nationality from the Arab advance. Four cen-
turies later, after the death of Timur, it was from Gilan near by,
that the Safawi house started on its victorious career, which led to
the establishment of the Shiah form of Islam as the national faith
of Persia. 43
The records of the Sasanid House, according to the preface to
the Shahnamah written by Baisinghar, the grandson of Timur,
were captured by the Arabs and a translation of part of them was
submitted to ‘Umar, who by no means approved of their contents.
From Arabia they went to Abyssinia, where by order of King
Jasha they were translated. The contents became known in India,
whence they were brought by Ya'qub Lais, who commanded Abu
Mansur to transcribe in Persian, what a learned ( danishivar )
dihkan had written in Pahlavi, and to complete the record to the
death of Yazdagird III (652-3 a. d.). Abu Mansur transmitted the
task to Su'ud, who with four others carried it to its completion.
The advent of the Samanids, at the end of the ninth century
brought encouragement to the work, as they claimed Sasanid de-
scent, and Nuh II (976-997) commissioned Daqiql to put the
records into Persian verse. He had written a thousand lines when
he was assassinated. 44
It is significant to notice that Firdausi, like Daqiql and the
others who participated in the work, were dihkans — landed pro-
prietors, or perhaps better, members of ‘ county families,’ whose
ancestry went back to Sasanid times and even beyond. Further-
more, the preliminary work, which preceded Firdausi’s epic and
rendered it possible, reflects the persistence of the Zoroastrian faith
and traditions. The term Shahnamah, with its kindred terms
Basiannamah, Khudainamah, Kuhannamah, appears to have ac-
quired the technical significance, on which Firdausi’s work set the
41 E. G. Browne, op. cit., I, 459-462.
13 V. M. Nazim, op. cit., pp. 21 f.
44 Firdausi (Tr. W.), I, 67 f.; cf. E. G. Browne, op. cit., I, 461, the
stanza opening “ 0 King, recalling Dara’s noble line.”
16
F. IF. Buckler
seal. The prevailing Sasanid atmosphere accounts for many of
Firdausi’s troubles and for the assumption that Daqiqi himself
was a Zoroastrian, as is certainly suggested by Daqiqi’s own lines :
“ Of all of this world’s good and ill
Four things Dakiki chooseth still —
Girl’s ruby lips, the sound of lyre.
The blood-red wine, the Faith of Fire.” 45
But the most important consequence is the parallel between Per-
sian and Jewish history, that this situation produces. The kinship
of the Jewish Messianic hope with Cyrus the Great is hv no means
wholly dependent on the Return. The Kayan House of Elam is
the oriental counterpart of the Davidic House of Jerusalem, and
both are agreed in their antagonism to the political control of
Babylon. 46 Baghdad was the ‘Arab Babylon, and the motive which
prompted the Hebrew Prophet to write ‘ Bel stoopeth, Nebo
boweth down’ reappears in the Persian Poet to extol the royal
pantheon of Zoroastrian Persia and the rights of £ Ali against the
Babylonish usurpations of ‘Umar and the House of ‘Abbas. David
and Solomon are replaced by Ardashir (who was crowned in
Baghdad!), and Nushlrwan, and in the victorious Mahmud, the
shoot of Yazdagird’s rod, is revealed a Persian Messiah. 47
Mahmud’s accession in 997 a. d. and his recognition of Firdausi
both fall far too late for the occasion and inception of the work.
Indeed, both Firdausi and his generation, as well as subsequent
generations, have been disposed to assign to the son of Subuktigin
a greater share of the glory than is his due, for it was Subuktigin
who laid the foundations of Mahmud’s success. He was, more-
over, the contemporary of Firdausi, being born in 942 a. d. and
ascending the throne of Ghazna in 977 a. d., the year after the
death of Daqiqi. Subuktigin’s reign supplied all the necessary
elements of the Great King, including the victories over the King
of Hind, Jaipal. Mahmud merely completed the edifice by the
overthrow of the Samanids in 999 a. d. and the subjugation of
45 Firdausi (Tr. W.), p. 69.
4, The historical parallel can be carried farther, and I suggest that the
t ought underlying the rise of the Messianic Hope is that if Anshan could
pr uce a Cyrus to force Bel to stoop, then why should not Jerusalem
or Juda?
47 V. particularly Firdausi (Tr. W.), VI, 207-9.
Firdausi's “ Shahnamah ”
17
Northern India as far as Somnath, whereby he became Lord of
Hind . 48 The recognition of Mahmud by the ‘Abbasid Khalifah,
whereby Mahmud received the title of the Eight Arm of the Faith
and the State, naturally evokes no response from Firdausi to whom
Mahmud is the King of Kings, and the possession of Baghdad by
the House of ‘Abbas is an usurpation of the city of the House of
Ardashir . 49
It is not only over Hind that the Conqueror of the Two Worlds
must rule but over Eiim. Here Persian royal tradition takes its
most notable departure from Avestan tradition, which regards
Sikandar Kumi (Alexander the Great) as possessed of the divinity
of Ahriman . 50 The Persian tradition follows the Egyptian sug-
gestion in Pseudo-Callisthenes and transforms Alexander’s ances-
try from Greek to Persian, Darab — a purely fictitious King — being
his true father, Philip his foster-father and Darius Codomannus
his younger, usurping brother. So Alexander is incorporated into
the Kayan royal Pantheon /’ 1 Caesar is descended from Salm, the
son of Farldun, and so he has a status in the divine Kingship,
but Firdausi leaves no doubt that it is a vassal status. It is fitting
that the Persians rule the Greeks, is the Kayan reply to Euripides,
for the Persian King is Lord of the World, and the Great King
relinquishes no claim to overlordship that he has ever exercised . 52
This position in Firdausi and the nation he represents is not a
matter of political science or diplomatic theory, but a matter of
fact and religion. It is clearly stated in praise of Mahmud,
“ ’Tis the king of Kum and Ind,
King from Kannuj e’en to the river Sind,
While in Turan and in Iran men give
48 Cf. the poem in praise of Sultan Mahmud, particularly Firdausi (Tr.
W.),I, 113.
48 Firdausi (Tr. W. ), VI, 258.
50 Firdausi (Tr. W.), I, 59-62 where full references will be found.
Ibid., I, 55; VI, 11-19, 29 ff.
62 Salm was the eldest son of Farldun ( Firdausi , Tr. W., I, 187-8) ; he
conspired with Tur {ibid.. 190 f.) after receiving the governorship of
Rum and the West. Therefore, from the beginning, Rum was part of the
territory of the Great King, and the defeat of Salm by Minuchihr (ibid.,
220-229), falling as it does in the Pishdadian period, fixes the assumption
as a theological and historical ultimate, in the eyes of the Poet; cf. the
advice of Lichas to the Spartans, Thuc., VIII, 43, 3-4.
18
F. W. Buckler
As slaves obedience to his will and live
Thereby. With justice decked he earth and now,
That done, hath set the crown upon his brow /’ 53
Firdausi is first and last the Poet of the Kayan Glory or Grace —
the farr or hvareno kavaem, of which the possession marks the
Great King and constitutes his right to rule. The determination
of the right and the possession rests with the Magi , 54 for, while
others may possess its mark, it is only in the King that it abides
in all completeness with its attributes of wisdom, bravery, and
justice. It is ‘the Glory that cannot be forcibly seized’; it is
likewise the Glory that cannot be hid. TuranI maternity does not
obscure it , 55 and AzI Dahhak is he who strives to gain it by force,
whether he he Turk or ‘Arab matters not . 56 History and legend
alike ascribe to Nushlrwan — the Sasanian who outdid the achieve-
ments of Alexander the Great — the virtue of not attempting ‘to
seize the Glory that cannot be forcibly seized,’ and his brother,
who made the fatal error, was set aside by the Magi . 57 It is the
struggle for the possession of the Glory and the detection of its
divine presence or its elusiveness on which turns the form of each
biography from the Pishdadians down to Yazdagird III . 58 Fir-
dausi’s task is to show its continuous incarnation throughout the
ages in a royal pantheon, differing fom Avestan and post Avestan
tradition only in the inclusion of Alexander the Great. The argu-
ment implicit in the Epic is that the Glory is eternal and that from
age to age it will manifest itself. Even in the dark periods of
Turanian triumph, it merely lies concealed, and that it will re-
appear as it does in Mahmud.
'Ihe King of Turan — the Enemy — maintains all the outward
appearance of its possession, and his benighted followers believe
that he is its possessor— as did Plran, the faithful follower of
63 Firdausi (Tr. W.), I, 113.
“ It is impossible to give references to a word which occurs on almost
every page. For the right of the Magi to judge the rightful possession of
the Glory, cf. Hdt. I, 107; Mt. II, v. also Firdausi (Tr. W.), II, 372;
cf. I, 60 ff., n. 57 infra, and Heb. kavOd yahwC-h.
53 E. g. Kai Khushrau, Firdausi (Tr W) II 363 372
63 Cf. S. B. E„ XXIII, 297 ff. ' ’ ’
5T Rawlinson, The Seventh Monarchy, pp. 379
M V. E. G. Browne, op. cit., II, 142-144; cf. I, 140-150.
Firdausi’s “ Shahnamah ”
19
Afrasiyab, and the house of ‘Abbas 59 — but, in that, they are led
astray for its home is in the Kay an house. This fact, however,
is of considerable importance as it provides a link between the
Shahnamah and the literature on the theory of the Caliphate.
Firdausi’s Shahnamah supplies the necessary introduction to the
work of his younger contemporary Mawardl. The al-Ahkdmu’l-
Sultaniyyah is a constitutional treatise of the overt working of the
theory of monarchy described in heroic strain by Firdausi. As an
instance of their proximity may be cited the automatic disquali-
fication of anyone announcing himself to be the Khalifah and so
attempting ‘ to seize the Glory that cannot be forcibly seized.’
Their difference appears most strikingly in the stress on the Suc-
cession of the Prophet Khildfatu’ Rasidi-llahi) in Mawardl,
at the expense of the eternal presence of divine vicegerency
(Khildfatu’ llah) in Firdausi. It is the difference of the ‘Arab
and the Persian . 60
Our last task is to show briefly the process by which the Shah-
namah became the foundation on which future Muslim Kings were
to base their right to rule. The custom of writing and retaining
the records of the reign was maintained at all courts. It was the
duty of the waqi‘ a-navlsi, whose work was simply that of com-
piling the ephemerides of the reign. The duty of putting these
records into literary form was assigned to a writer of standing.
At the Ottoman court in the sixteenth century, there was a series
of these writers who held the title of Shahnamajl. Their works
were called, variously, a Shahnamah, a Fatihnamah, or Zafar-
namah. Frequently the name of the sovereign was prefixed to the
book particularly that of Alexander the Great, the Sikandarnamah
or Iskandarnamah . 61 In most cases there was an appeal, by means
of a genealogy, to high antiquity and distinguished ancestry. Both
poetry and prose were used to set forth the record. These epics
were not infrequently avowed continuations of Firdausi. They
were all indebted to him for their language and metre, for the
Shahnamah had, so to speak, established the technique of correct
epic writing . 62
*• Cf. Glv’s remarks to the faithful Plran. Firdausi (Tr. W. ), II, 383-4.
80 Enc. Islam, II, s. v. Khalifa.
81 H. Ethe, ap. (Grundr. Ir. Phil.) , II, 236-7.
83 E. G. Browne, op. cit., Ill, 95 ff. ; cf. supra, n. 7; Grundr. Ir. Phil.,
II, 178 flf. (Noeldeke), 233-239 (Ethe).
20
F. W. Buckler
The most interesting fact of all, however, is seen in their rela-
tion to the political exigencies of the period in which they appear.
We have seen already that there is, in Firdausi’s Shahnamah, a
definite political motif — the re-instatement of the Persian King as
the King of Kings, without reference to Muslim authority — par-
ticularly the authority of the ‘Abbasid Khalifah at Baghdad. The
Shahnamah and its descendants became the regular form in which
such assertions of sovereign rights were stated. It is neither pos-
sible nor necessary here to quote the catena, and a few examples
must suffice. Hamdu’llah Mustaufi’s Zafarnamah (c. 1334 a. d.)
forms the link between Firdausi and Sharafu’l-DIn Yazdi’s Zafar-
namah or Iskandarnamah-i-Timuri. The force of the allusion to
Alexander was the declaration of overlordship over the Ottoman
(Rumi) Turks. From the Zafarnamah spring the Tlmurid works
by which the descendants of Babur, particularly Akbar (1556-1605
a. d.), declared their independence alike of Ottoman Turk and
Safawi Persian. Of these works, Abu’l-Fazl’s Akbarnamah is the
most important, as, together with the Tarikhi Alfl, it gives to
Akbar’s reign the significance of the millennium achieved. 63 At
the same time the Safawi poets produced their Shahnamah,
lsma‘ilndmah, Shahanshahnamah. To continue this enumeration
would be but to weary my audience with a series of names, 64 never-
theless there are two works, written just over a century ago and
belonging to the same literary category, which cannot be omitted
here— the Jirjis-i Razm of Safdar £ Ali Shah Munsif and the
Jarjnamah of Firuz ibn Ka’us (1814-1837 a. d.)- — the latter a
work of forty thousand couplets, in praise of the Four Georges ! 6D
In conclusion, it must be noticed that, with the exception of the
Mongol Kings, who base their right to rule on equalling or excell-
ing the achievements of Alexander the Great — the significance of
the title Iskandarnamah — the claim of the Shahnamah and its
kindred works is that the hero possesses by virtue of his birth and
ancestry the farr or the Kayan Glory, whose mark is on his body. 66
It sets out the unity of the body regal from Jamshld and Farldun
M E. G. Browne, op. cit., Ill, 95 ff.; Grundr. Ir. Phil., II, 237; ‘Abdu’l-
Ghanl, op. cit., Ill, 243 ff. and supra, n. 7.
8 ‘ For a full list v. Grundr. Ir. Phil., II, 235-237.
85 Ibid., p. 238.
88 Firdausi (Tr. W.), II, 373.
Firdausi’s “ Shahnamdh ”
21
to the King who is the writer’s hero. Firdausi’s Shahnamah laid
the foundation on which his successors built, and provided the
means whereby Muslim monarchy could exist independent of
‘Umar’s choice of the succession ( Kh ildfat ) , by resting its claim
on the right of ‘Umar’s contemporary Yazdagird III and the
divine Khildfat inherent in the Kayan and Sasanid monarchies.
It is this development which accounts for the tendency of the term,
(and the view inherent in the term), Khalifatu’llah to supersede
the term Kh alifatu Rasuli-llahi in political prestige, particularly
after the assumption of the role of Leader of the Faithful by the
Ottoman Sultan in virtue of his possession of the Twin Shrines.
From the eighteenth century onwards, moreover, the situation in
the Muslim world has been marked by the steady advance of Azi
Dahhak and the forces of Turan, in the north, from the expansion
of Eussia, in the south, from the extension of the power of the East
India Companies. In 1857, Bahadur Shah II, unmindful of his
PIshdadian predecessor, committed the folly of attempting ‘ to seize
the Glory that cannot be forcibly seized,’ and
“ Pressed by the world’s new lord
He fled, surrendering crown, throne and treasure.
Host, power and diadem. The world turned black
To him, he disappeared and yielded all.” 67
Sixty years later, Persia faced her revolution, which was the result
of the combined attack of the Azi Dahhak of "Western mercantile
companies and the Azi Dahhak of the North — Eussia. The conse-
quence of the Eevolution, the War and the great Turanian menace
of the North was the deposition of the last Qajar and the elevation
of Eidha Pahlavi Shah to the masnad in 1926. Both the title he
has assumed and his Jarman ordering the Firdausi celebrations
mark an appeal to Persia’s past as the means of restoring the
Kayan Glory to its native throne.
” 7 Firdausi (Tr. W.), I, 140.
MAIMONIDES AND SPINOZA ON THE INTERPRE-
TATION OP THE BIBLE
Isaac Htjsik
University of Pennsylvania
In November 1932 the tercentennial anniversary of the birth of
Spinoza was celebrated throughout the civilized world. In March
and April of the present year the octocentenary of Moses
Maimonides will be celebrated wherever there are Jews interested
in their past.
Spinoza was born a Jew, but unfortunately was excommunicated
by the Synagogue because of his independence and freedom of
speech. His was an age when theological controversies were taken
seriously, and the Jewish community of Amsterdam was even more
sensitive than the native Dutch because they were recent immi-
grants from Spain and Portugal, did not yet feel completely at
home in Holland and no doubt feared the consequences of theological
odium should it become publicly known that a non-conformist like
the young Spinoza, was tolerated in their midst. His exclusion
from the society of his own people must have made a great im-
pression upon the sensitive youth which was deep and lasting and
contributed to the solitariness of this great thinker whose unpopular
ideas must have made his life a lonely one under any circumstances.
The few friends he did have were Christians, and Spinoza, always
so gentle and unruffled, betrays a trace of bitterness when he speaks
of the Jews who had treated him so badly.
In the Ethics, Spinoza is the Olympian who envisages eternity,
and religion, race and nation are treated as non-existent. Geometry
is universal and Spinoza treats of reality and truth more geometrico,
as befits a philosopher.
In the Theologico-Political Treatise, he is concerned with the
concrete problem of political freedom. He urges that freedom of
thought and expression is not merely not incompatible with public
peace and loyalty, but that it can not be suppressed without sup-
pressing peace and loyalty itself. He is speaking here of a subject
\er\ near to his heart as a man and not merely as an abstract
philosopher. He had suffered and was suffering in his own person
from political and religious intolerance. In this work therefore we
22
Maimonides and Spinoza
23
find the human side of Spinoza coming out a little more clearly,
and we are surprised by the strange phenomenon that while he is
dealing in detail with the Old Testament and very cursorily with
the New, for as a Jew he had been brought up on the Old Testa-
ment and had mastered Hebrew, the language in which it was
originally written, — we are met, I say, with the strange phenome-
non, that while he writes as only a Jew steeped in Jewish literature
can write of the Old Testament, his references to the ancient
Hebrews and the Jews breathe a certain aloofness as if he was not
one of them, and he does not spare them in his attacks. It grates
a little because it seems somewhat untrue to the traditional picture
of Spinoza as being always equable and affable and cheerful and
never saying an unkind word about anybody. At the same time it
is understandable and at the same time gratif ying, because it shows
that Spinoza was human after all.
Maimonides, on the other hand, had never been disowned by his
people despite the fact that he too offended the fundamentalists of
his day. But he lived in a different age. The Mohammedans in
Spain in the twelfth century until the coming of the Almohades
were liberal. Science and Philosophy were respected and cultivated
with diligence. Moreover, Maimonides did not publish his philo-
sophical work, the Guide of the Perplexed, until he was an old man
and had become distinguished as the greatest rabbinical authority
of his time. Much could be forgiven the “great luminary of the
exile,” who was trying to help the perplexed of his day to solve
their perplexities and remain loyal to the teachings of Judaism.
A comparison of these two men as interpreters of holy writ is
therefore both timely and instructive.
Unlike other books, the Old Testament, as soon as the canon was
closed assumed a unique position among the Jews. It was the word
and the law of God revealed to Moses and the prophets. It was
complete and perfect, nothing could be added to it or taken away.
As the Jews lost their state and were dispersed among the nations,
the only thing that held them together was this book, as they
refused to be lost in their dispersion. Hence it was necessary
for them to draw their intellectual and spiritual sustenance from
the Bible. This involved the interpretation of the book, particularly
of its laws, so as to adopt them to new conditions of life.
This phenomenon is not unique so far as law is concerned. The
Bomans had an analogous experience with the law of the XII
24
Isaac EusiJc
Tables, which was called by Livy (III, 34, 7) “fons omnis publici
privatique iuris,” although in Justinian’s time nothing was left
of the original legislation. The difference, however, is that the
Romans had their own state and were free to make new laws when-
ever they chose. Moreover they had already made a distinction
between ius and fas, human law and divine, i. e., law concerning
human relations and ceremonial law having to do with man’s
relation to the gods. As the Jews, however, lost their state, they
became a Church and the Church absorbed all law, human as well
as divine.
The first stage of biblical interpretation is to be found in the
Mishna and the Gemara or in the Talmud and the Midrashim. It
is for the most part an interpretation of the civil and ritual law of
the Pentateuch. It corresponds to what is called the Interpretatio
in Roman law, the extension of the law of the XII tables by means
of fictions. The only difference is that the fictitious character of
the rabbinical interpretation is more drastic, owing to the fact that
in post-Biblical times the Jews had no legislative body and hence
had to make interpretation do the work of legislation.
Thus the first stage or period of Jewish interpretation of the
Bible was principally legalistic (including the ceremonial law) and
was mostly concerned with the Pentateuchal codes. As thus
interpreted the Pentateuchal law, in theory, embraced the whole
life of the Jew, his relations to his fellow Jews and his relations
to his God in the broadest sense. The literary products of this
interpretation are to be found in the two monuments of rabbinical
Judaism, the Mishna (ab. 200 a. d.) and the Gemara or Talmud
(Babylonian and Palestinian — ab. 500 A. D.), as well as the
Midrashim (of different dates). These became authoritative, and
formed the bases of the various codifications from Jehudai Gaon
(760) to Joseph Caro (16th century).
In the Alexandrian period, during the first two centuries B. C.,
when the Jews were under Greek rule, they acquired new interests.
Living in a hellenistic atmosphere they absorbed something of the
scientific and philosophic ideas of their political masters, which
broadened their outlook. Once more they found the Biblical
writings in need of interpretation, but of a different kind. Hence
it was not only the legal codes, but even more so the narrative
portions of the Pentateuch, which were subjected to interpretation.
Maimonides and Spinoza
25
and by introducing the allegorical method, they were able to find
in the Pentateuch not merely practical teachings but also theo-
retical, such as they found in Platonism and Stoicism. This kind
of interpretation can be seen in the work of Philo (b. ab. 25 b. c.).
So far as the literary documents are concerned, the Alexandrian
literature seems to antedate the Palestinian and the Babylonian,
but there is no doubt that legalistic interpretation was carried on a
long time before it was put down in definitive literary form.
Moreover the Alexandrian movement came to an end shortly after
the days of Philo, and its medieval analogue did not begin until
about the ninth century.
In the early middle ages the mantle of the Greeks, whose
philosophical schools were closed by Emperor Justinian in 529,
fell upon the Arabs. To be sure, the Nestorian and Jacobite
Christians in Syria and Mesopotamia founded theological schools
in the fourth century in which Greek science and philosophy were
also cultivated, but they did not carry these activities very far, and
their importance in this respect is rather that of mediators between
the Greeks and the Arabs. The latter owed their first knowledge
of Greek science and philosophy to the Syrian Christians whom
they employed as translators. The Arabs, then, were the real
successors of the Greeks and, as is well known, cultivated philosophy
and the sciences very seriously from the 8th to the 12th centuries.
The Jews followed in the wake of the Arabs and like them, both
in the East and in Spain, devoted a great deal of their energies to
science and philosophy. Again the Bible perforce had to be sub-
jected to another effort of interpretation, for as the word of God
and the sole expression thereof it must contain all that is found
to be true regarding God, the universe and the soul of man, in short
all those matters which a cultivated Jew in those days found im-
portant for a complete life.
Maimonides was the greatest exponent of this movement. He
did not, so far as we know, write a commentary on the Bible, but
in his Guide of the Perplexed we find a good deal of interpretation
of biblical texts and, what is more important, a complete theory
of interpretation.
He tells us in the Introduction why he called his book the Guide
of the Perplexed. The Perplexed are those persons who are devout
students of the Bible and believers in the truth of its teachings,
26
Isaac Husik
who have also familiarized themselves with the science of the
philosophers and find discrepancies between the two. They are
confronted with two alternatives. They must either accept the
biblical statements and reject the conclusions of reason as taught
by the philosophers, or they accept the teachings of reason and
reject the statements of the Bible. As rational beings and believers
in the Bible, they can not do either, hence their perplexity. And
Maimonides undertakes to guide these persons in their difficulty.
His theory is as follows : There can be no disagreement between
reason and revelation, for truth is one; rational truth and revealed
truth must coincide. Philosophy is rational truth, the Bible is
revealed truth. Not everything taught by a philosopher is neces-
sarily true, but the teachings of philosophy are true. As to the
Bible, everything in it is true, but one must understand what it
says. If a given interpretation clashes with reason, that alone is
proof that the interpretation is wrong. If you ask : But why was
the Bible written so obscurely that the ordinary reader can not
understand it? Was it not intended precisely for the ordinary
reader ? If you ask this question, Maimonides’s answer is : Yes, the
Bible was written for all kinds of readers. It was written for the
wise and the simple, for the young and the old. And precisely
because it was intended to be some things to all men, it is in need of
interpretation.
The source of error may be twofold, one may fail to understand
the import of a biblical passage or one may misunderstand it and
gather an erroneous doctrine. The first is not serious. The
Bible contains certain doctrines which an untrained person can
not understand either because he has not the preliminary knowledge
which requires years of steady application to obtain, or he may by
reason of his inherent intellectual weakness be unable to grasp
profound metaphysical concepts. In a case like this he can see only
the surface meaning of the biblical text and that is enough for
him. Every one is not bound to be a philosopher.
However, there are certain passages in the Bible which if one
understands literally he will have an erroneous conception of God.
These are the anthropomorphic expressions of which the Bible is
full, and to think of God as corporeal in form or endowed with
faculties and emotions akin to those of man is a very serious error
and tantamount to idolatry. It is not incumbent upon every
man, woman and child to be able to prove scientifically the exis-
Maimonides and Spinoza
27
tence, unity and incorporeality of God, but if one believes that
God is multiple or corporeal, he is guilty of a serious offence, which
may exclude him from the community of Israel.
Accordingly Maimonides undertakes to enlighten the sophisti-
cated reader for whom his work is intended on both these aspects
of biblical interpretation. So far as the anthropomorphic ex-
pressions are concerned, he says that they are to be understood as
metaphors. Hand of God, mouth of God, feet of God, face of
God, etc., are expressions intended for the simple reader, to whom
the reality and activity of God can not be brought home in any
other way. With respect to the esoteric part of biblical doctrine,
Maimonides identifies it with the physics and metaphysics of Aris-
totle and interprets the creation story in Genesis in the sense of
Aristotle’s physics, and the first chapter of Ezekiel describing the
divine chariot as an allegory teaching doctrines of metaphysics
akin to those of Aristotle.
Maimonides’s theory of biblical interpretation is not incompa-
tible with the traditional rabbinical interpretation, for in the
first place the passages which lend themselves to metaphysical
interpretation are not the laws but the narratives, and secondly,
Maimonides does not deny the historical truth of the narratives, he
merely superposes the deeper philosophical interpretation upon the
literal. It is only in reference to the anthropomorphic expressions
that he rejects entirely the literal interpretation.
His standard of interpretation is, as can easily be seen, an
external one, the one of rational truth. The assumption — an a
priori assumption — is that the Bible must accord with reason,
i. e., with what Maimonides was convinced was the teaching of
true science and philosophy. Any apparent discrepancy must there-
fore be explained away by interpretation. And this was bound to
lead to all sorts of artificial devices.
Textual criticism did not exist in Maimonides’s day. The
variants in the Masoretic text were regarded as genuine and ori-
ginal and there was no study of the Greek version, as Greek was an
unknown language to Maimonides and his Jewish contemporaries.
The Aramaic version of Onkelos was carefully considered. Mai-
monides, in fact, refers to it in support of his interpretation of the
anthropomorphic passages, but the genuineness and accuracy of
the Masoretic text were never doubted.
28
Isaac HusiTc
Inconsistencies in the Bible itself did not escape Maimonides or
his rabbinic predecessors, the sages of the Talmud, but with the
exception of a lone figure, Hivi al Balki, a contemporary of Saadia
(9th century), all smoothed them over by interpretation. The
unity of the Pentateuch was never doubted for a moment, nor
was the Mosaic authorship. The last twelve verses of Deuteronomy
recording the death and burial of Moses did indeed seem incom-
patible with Moses’s authorship of every single word in the Penta-
teuch, as the Talmud had already noted, and one Babbi said that
those verses must have been added by Joshua, while another Babbi
would not concede even this much and found satisfaction in the
theory that God dictated those verses to Moses as he dictated all
the rest. Indeed, why not? God can dictate the future as well
as the past.
The foundations of Hebrew grammar were laid down long
before Maimonides and the science of grammar was carefully
studied by Saadia and the famous grammarians Menahem ben
Saruk, Hayyuj and Ibn Janah, and was applied to the study of
the Bible. The cognate languages, too, especially Arabic, were
brought to bear upon the interpretation of difficult Hebrew words
and phrases in the Bible. But all this did not affect the doctrinal
and tendentious exegesis of the philosophers. Once grant the
multiple meaning of the sacred text, exoteric and esoteric, and all
difficulties vanish.
Strangely enough, Maimonides may be said to have inaugurated
the study of comparative religion as an aid to the study of the
biblical institutions. He did this as he did the rest in aid of his
rationalistic hypothesis. If the Bible must accord with reason and
its teaching of God must be in agreement with the conception of
God attained by philosophy, the institution of sacrifices is an
anomaly. To be sure, Maimonides could have read some esoteric
doctrine in Leviticus as he did in Genesis and Ezekiel, but he could
not break with the historical tradition which was continuous and
showed beyond any doubt that the sacrifices were taken very
seriously, that there was a Temple and a priestly and levitical caste.
The Talmud devotes several treatises to the services in the Temple,
the prayer book is full of references to the sacrifices, and the
messianic hope is associated with the rebuilding of the temple and
the restoration of the sacrifices. There must be some explanation
Maimonides and Spinoza
29
for this peculiar institution, which can not be allegorized. The
creation story and the description of the divine chariot are just
stories, they do not involve any practical institution. Here we
are dealing with laws prescribing a very complicated ritual which
occupied a central position in ancient Hebrew worship, a position
incompatible with Maimonides’s conception of God.
A similar difficulty arises in connection with the explanation of
certain prohibitions in the Pentateuch, such as the wearing of
garments of wool and flax mixed ( sha’atnez ), of shaving the
corner of the beard, of seething a kid in its mother’s milk, of
sowing mixed seeds (MV aim), and so on. What is the reason for
these ?
It is in order to explain these peculiar laws and institutions
that Maimonides has recourse to comparative religion. He read,
he tells us, all the works of the Sabeans, idolaters who lived in the
time of Abraham, so far as these works were extant in Arabic.
These Sabeans were star worshippers and practiced certain cere-
monies analogous to those forbidden in the Bible to appease the
stars and induce them to prosper their agricultural activities. The
Sabeans also offered sacrifices to the stars. Moses desired to wean
the Israelites away from idolatrous practices and lead them to the
worship of the true God. With this object in view he followed a
twofold method. Some of the rites he prohibited outright, the
practice of offering sacrifices was regarded by the people as the very
essence of religious worship. It would have been bad policy to
prohibit it, as it would have involved a complete break with tradi-
tional custom. The Israelites would have refused to follow. As
a clever statesman, Moses let them have their beloved sacrifices
with all their pomp and ceremony, but with one proviso — they
must sacrifice to the true God and not to the stars. Gradually,
he hoped, as they came to understand the nature of the true God
they would discontinue the sacrifices of their own accord (III,
29-32).
There is one important exception to the statement made above
that in the time of Maimonides no one had undertaken any kind
of historical or literary criticism of the Pentateuch. That excep-
tion is no less than the famous commentator Abraham ibn Ezra
(1092-1167). But this very instance shows how rare such criticism
was and how dangerous it was to speak of it plainly. It shows also
30
Isaac Husik
that historical and grammatical exegesis was not regarded as in
any manner incompatible with the allegorical interpretation that
was otherwise prevalent. For Ibn Ezra uses both. His comment
on Ecclesiastes 5:7 is a good example of the current method of
interpretation. The text reads:
by nann bit rumsc ntnn pnsi aeirp Vui p$roK
ton^jr Dhintt npitf byo nni p ^cnn
“ If thou seests the oppression of the poor, and the violent per-
verting of justice and righteousness in the state, marvel not at
the matter, for one higher than the high wateheth, and there are
higher than they.”
There would seem to be no difficulty in this passage that should
call for an extraordinary comment. Ibn Ezra, however, says :
r c’3i cn p“i inx urw f onnn ni nxm ~iqw w ’D in
,C*1EDD UPN 1? T *6 D’21 D'lQWl r nl22 byo Hi 21 HIK Vd!
jtp cwn me yivm ,nw njrx cnbyow nbtt by dvvdj cn 'd
vricb by.it xVi ,n^am □'won an iron byr> nai 'J
“ Know that there is a watcher who sees this violence. He is
not one, but there are many, and one is higher than the other. No
one knows the number of the many watchers, for there are higher
ones than these, and they are of different rank. He who knows the
mystery of God knows that ‘ higher than the high ’ means fifty-five,
but I cannot explain.”
Obviously Ibn Ezra' is not thinking of human watchers but of
divine, and of a sort of hierarchy, and he ends up mysteriously,
“ He who knows the mystery of the Name, knows that ‘ higher than
the high ’ are fifty-five.”
What is all his mystery about? I have not seen any explanation
of this cryptic remark anywhere, but the solution seems clear.
According to Aristotle in the Metaphysics XII, 8, there are accord-
ing to one theory fifty-five celestial spheres. The spheres were
believed to be endowed with life and were moved by separate
Intelligences or Spirits, each sphere having its own Intelligence.
These Intelligences of Aristotle were identified by the Jewish
Aristotelians with the biblical angels. As movers of the spheres
they controlled also the terrestrial (sublunar) world, though the
specific Intelligence in charge of sublunar existence was called the
Maimonides and Spinoza
31
Active Intellect. Thus fifty-five spheres were moved hv fifty-five
Intelligences or angels, who represented the celestial hierarchy in
charge of mundane happenings.
At the same time the mystic and astrologer Ibn Ezra was a very
keen grammarian and exegete. And if a comment like the one
just mentioned could not be stated plainly ( N^' ) for
fear of imparting esoteric doctrine to the uninitiated, the pre-
caution must be still greater when suspicion is cast upon the
authenticity of certain passages in the Pentateuch.
Ibn Ezra does not doubt the divine authority of the Pentateuch
and he attacks unsparingly a certain Isaac ben Suleiman (d. 940)
who denied the authority of the first chapter of Genesis, but certain
passages in the Pentateuch troubled him, and his comment on
Deut. 1:5:
nwn rninn -jin in 2 ntfo Wtfn dn-'o pp ]-nv> 2251?
“beyond the Jordan, in the land of Moab, took Moses upon him
to expound this law . . . ” is as follows :
,nwo aro v 1 ci ,-nr/y own to pn cni ••• p-m -ojn
ion ,^12 tmj> ntny run ci ,nN'r i 'n me r pte tn 'uyio'in
•noxn
“Beyond Jordan ... If you understand the mystery of the
twelve, * And Moses wrote/ ‘ And the Canaanite was then in the
land/ ‘ In the mountain of the Lord it shall be seen/ ‘ Behold his
bed is a bed of iron/ you will know the truth.” I do not know
whether Spinoza was the first to penetrate Ibn Ezra’s secret, but
there can be no doubt that his solution is correct.
The expression “beyond Jordan” to designate the east side of
the river indicates that the passage must have been written on the
west side, i. e., in Palestine. But Moses never was in Palestine,
hence the verse was not written by Moses. In his remark on this
passage Ibn Ezra indicates cryptically that this is not the only
passage which must have been written later than the time of Moses.
The last twelve verses of Deuteronomy recording the death of
Moses could not have been written by Moses. The verse : “And
Moses wrote this law. . . .” (Deut. 31:9), speaks of Moses in
the third person, hence it was written by someone else. IE this is
what Ibn Ezra meant, the argument is very weak, for with few
32
Isaac Husik
exceptions Moses is referred to in the third person throughout the
Pentateuch and there was no need of singling out this particular
passage. Moreover the Gallic War always speaks of Caesar in the
third person. Possibly Ibn Ezra had something else in mind.
Gen. 12 : 6, describing Abram’s passage through Canaan and
arriving in Shechem, notes that the “ Canaanite was then in the
land,” thus implying that in the time of the writer the Canaanite
was no longer in the land. Hence it must have been written after
the Israelitish conquest. It is possible, indeed, that the remark
means : “ the Canaanite was then already in the land,” as compared
with a time anterior to Moses when some other people occupied
the land. And, in fact, Ibn Ezra’s comment on the passage is:
“ It is possible that Canaan took the land away from some one
else; but if this is not the meaning, then there is a mystery here,
and the wise will keep silent.” Again a mystery. Spinoza, how-
ever, points out that in Gen. 10 : 19, which names the original
inhabitants of the land, we are told that “the border of the
Canaanite was from Sidon, as thou goest toward Gerar, unto
Gazah ; as thou goest toward Sodom and Gomorrah and Admah and
Zeboim unto Lasha.” Hence the Canaanites were the original
inhabitants, and the word “ then ” can not mean “ then already,”
but then still in the land, as compared with the time of the writer,
when the Canaanites were no longer there. In Gen. 22 : 14, Mount
Moriah is called the mount of God, but it did not become the
mount of God until it was chosen as the site of the temple. Finally
in Deut. 3:11, speaking of Og King of Bashan, the text says:
“ Only Og King of Bashan remained of the remnant of the
Kephaim; behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron; is it not in
Rabbah of the children of Ammon ? ” This reference to his bed-
stead was clearly written long after the time of Og, who was a
contemporary of Moses and whose defeat Moses describes to his
own generation.
Precisely what Ibn Ezra had in mind as an explanation of these
mysteries, it is hard to tell. Probably nothing more serious than
the suggestion that the verses in question are interpolations. But
in Ibn Ezra’s day that was serious enough. It is to be hardly
assumed that Ibn Ezra meant to deny the Mosaic authorship of
the Pentateuch as a whole.
Spinoza found a kindred spirit in Ibn Ezra. But he was free.
Maimonides and Spinoza
33
He cast off the traditional shackles and spoke his mind. And in so
doing, he laid the foundations of biblical criticism.
Spinoza’s fame as a philosopher so overshadowed his achievement
as a biblical critic that among the voluminous writings on Spinoza
there is scarcely anything that deals with his critical exegesis. 1
For the first time in history Spinoza lays down the axiom that
to understand the Bible we must approach it without prejudice or
preconceptions. The Bible must be treated like any other ancient
book. Or, in his own words, “ The method of interpreting Scrip-
ture does not widely differ from the method of interpreting
nature — in fact it is almost the same. For as the interpretation of
nature consists in the examination of the history of nature and
therefrom, as from established data, deducing definitions of natural
phenomena, so Scriptural interpretation ought to proceed by the
examination of Scripture and therefrom, as from established prin-
ciples and data, deducing the intention of its authors in the proper
manner” (VII, 6-7, ed. Bruder). 2
The divine origin of the Bible must be a conclusion and not a
premise. And as far as possible we must get the meaning of
Scripture from Scripture itself.
All this sounds obvious to us now. In Spinoza’s day it required
all the courage of the lonely and independent thinker to suggest
so simple an idea. The accepted view was that of Maimonides
which we discussed before.
Spinoza was aware that he was making a revolutionary sug-
gestion, and the author whom he expressly opposes is Maimonides,
whose statement he quotes. “The opinion of Maimonides,” he
says, “was widely different. He asserted that each passage in
Scripture admits of various, nay, contrary meanings; but that we
could never be certain of any particular interpretation until we
knew that the passage, as we interpreted it, contained nothing con-
1 See Karppe, Essais de Critique et d’Histoire de Philosophie, Paris, 1902,
p. 143. Cf., however, Leo Strauss, “ Cohens Analyse der Bibelwissenschaft
Spinozas ” in Der Jude, VIII, 1924, pp. 295-314.
1 Spinoza’s biblical criticism is contained in his Tractatus Theologico-
Politicus. The translations are taken from R. H. M. Elw'es in Bohn’s
Libraries though he is not always accurate. The English reader need not
confine himself to the passages quoted, but for the benefit of the student,
who may desire to verify the quotations in the original Latin, I have
indicated the references to Bruder’s edition, by chapter and section.
34
Isaac Husik
trary or repugnant to reason. If the literal interpretation clashes
with reason, then though the passage seems perfectly clear, it must
be interpreted differently” (ibid., 75).
As an instance of this canon of interpretation Spinoza men-
tions the passage in Maimonides’s Guide of the Perplexed, which
has been quoted so often that it almost seems a commonplace,
namely the statement of Maimonides in Ch. 25 of the Second Part
of the Guide , which he makes in connection with his discussion of
the origin of the world.
Aristotle believed in the eternity of the world and gave certain
proofs in support of his opinion. Maimonides is bold enough to
disagree with Aristotle and rejects eternity in favor of creation in
time. Fearing that his motive might be misunderstood and that
he might be charged with theological prejudice unbecoming in a
scientific philosopher, Maimonides says : “ Know that the reason
we reject the doctrine of eternity of the world is not because of the
biblical texts which say that the world originated in time. For the
texts concerning the origin of the world are no more numerous
than those which speak of God in corporeal terms. Moreover, the
gates of interpretation are not closed or impassible in the matter
of the origin of the world. We could interpret them metaphorically
as we interpreted metaphorically those passages which ascribe
corporeality to God. In fact, it would be much easier to do this
here than in the other case. But there are two reasons why we
do not do so in this case. One is that the incorporeality of God is
clearly proved by reason and hence it was necessary to interpret
metaphorically those passages which literally understood, clash with
reason. But the eternity of the world has not been proved, and
hence there is no need of doing violence to the text and explaining it
allegorically in favor of an unproved opinion. The second reason
is this : Belief in the incorporeality of God is not opposed to the
fundamental principles of our religion, whereas to believe in the
eternity of the world would upset the basis of religion. ...”
“ Such are the words of Maimonides,” says Spinoza, in com-
menting on the passage just quoted, “ and they aTe evidently
sufficient to establish our point. For if he had been convinced by
reason that the world is eternal, he would not have hesitated to
twist and explain away the words of Scripture till he made them
appear to teach this doctrine. He would have felt quite sure that
Maimonides and Spinoza
35
Scripture, though everywhere plainly denying the eternity of the
world, really intends to teach it. So that, however clear the mean-
ing of Scripture may be, he would not feel certain of having
grasped it, so long as he remained doubtful of the truth of what
was written.
“ ... If such a theory as this were sound, I would certainly
grant that some faculty beyond the natural reason is required for
interpreting Scripture. Tor nearly all things that we find in
Scripture cannot be inferred from known principles of natural
reason, and, therefore, we should be unable to come to any conclu-
sion about their truth, or about the real meaning and intention of
Scripture, but should stand in need of some further assistance.
“ Further, the truth of this theory would involve that the
masses, having generally no comprehension of, nor leisure for,
detailed proofs, would be reduced to receiving all their knowledge
of Scripture on the authority and testimony of philosophers, and
consequently, would be compelled to suppose that the interpreta-
tions given by philosophers were infallible.
“ Truly this would be a new form of ecclesiastical authority, and
a new sort of priests or pontiffs, more likely to excite men’s ridicule
than their veneration” (Hid., 77-79).
Spinoza continues in the same vein in criticism of Maimonides,
ending up with the following scathing remark : “ Therefore, the
method of Maimonides is clearly useless ; to which we may add that
it does away with all the certainty which the masses acquire by
candid reading, or which is gained by any other persons in any
other wav. In conclusion, then, we dismiss Maimonides’ theory
as harmful, useless, and absurd” (ibid., 86-87).
From Spinoza’s fundamental principle that the method of
interpreting Scripture is similar to the method of interpreting
nature, he draws the following corollaries.
1. We must know “the nature and properties of the language
in which the books of the Bible were written, and in which their
authors were accustomed to speak.”
2. We must make “ an analysis of each book and an arrange-
ment of its contents under heads. We should also note all the
passages which are ambiguous or obscure, or which seem mutually
contradictory.”
3. We should investigate the “ environment of all the prophetic
36
Isaac Husik
books extant; that is, the life, the conduct, and the studies of the
author of each book, who he was, what was the occasion and the
epoch of his writing, whom did he write for, and in what language.
Further we should inquire into the fate of each book: how it was
first received, into whose hands it fell, how many different versions
there were of it, by whose advice was it received into the Bible,
and, lastly, how all the books now universally accepted as sacred,
were united into a single whole” (Hid., 15-25).
Spinoza is aware that it is easier to lay down the prerequisites
for an understanding of Scripture than to follow them out in prac-
tice. He enumerates the difficulties attaching to language, in the
ease of the 0. T. the Hebrew language. We know it imperfectly
by reason of historical accident, such as the loss of all ancient
Hebrew literature except a small fraction thereof contained in the
Hebrew Bible; then there are the difficulties and ambiguities in-
herent in the structure of the language itself, such as the lack of
vowels, the incomplete character of Hebrew moods and tenses,
and so on.
To get a complete history of the books of the Bible and its
authors is now impossible. And so Spinoza concludes his enumera-
tion of the difficulties as follows :
“ The foregoing difficulties in this method of interpreting Scrip-
ture from its own history, I conceive to be so great that I do not
hesitate to say that the true meaning of Scripture is in many
places inexplicable, or at best mere subject for guesswork.” How-
ever, he does not despair, because these difficulties apply only to
certain parts of the Bible, “ when we endeavor to follow the mean-
ing of a prophet in matters which can not be perceived, but only
imagined.” There is enough left that we can understand. “ The
precepts of true piety aTe expressed in very ordinary language,
and are equally simple and easily understood.” . . . “ Therefore
we need not be much troubled about what remains; such matters,
inasmuch as we generally can not grasp them with our reason and
understanding, are more curious than profitable” ( Hid 65-69).
Spinoza did not content himself with laying down rules for the
stud} of the Bible, he made use of them himself in his investiga-
tion and obtained certain interesting results, some of which I shall
now briefly indicate.
In his discussion of prophecy he says : “ Our conclusions on the
Maimonides and Spinoza
37
subject must be drawn solely from Scripture; for what can we
affirm about matters transcending our knowledge except what is
told us by the words or writings of prophets ? And since there are,
so far as I know, no prophets now alive, we have no alternative
but to read the books of prophets departed, taking care the while
not to reason from metaphor or to ascribe anything to our authors
which they do not themselves distinctly state” (ibid., I, 7).
“ A perusal of the sacred books will show us that all God’s
revelations to the prophets were made through words or appear-
ances, or a combination of the two. These words and appearances
were of two kinds: 1. real, when external to the mind of the
prophet who heard or saw them. 2. imaginary, when the imagina-
tion of the prophet was in a state which led him distinctly to
suppose that he heard or saw them ” (ibid., 9).
Referring to the Sinaitic revelation, he says : “ Scripture seems
clearly to point to the belief that God spoke himself, having
descended from heaven to Mt. Sinai for the purpose. . . . Further,
the law of Moses . . . nowhere prescribed the belief that God is
without body, or even without form or figure ... it forbade the
Jews to invent or fashion any likeness of the Deity, but this was
to insure purity of service. . . . Nevertheless the Bible clearly
implies that God has a form” (ibid., 17).
“ Revelation may be through figures only, as in I Chronicles, 22,
where God displays his anger to David by means of an angel
bearing a sword, and also in the story of Balaam” (ibid., 19).
Here again he pays his respects to Maimonides very frankly.
“ Maimonides and others,” he says, “ do indeed maintain that
these and every other instance of angelic apparitions . . . occurred
during sleep, for that no one with his eyes open ever could see an
angel, but this is mere nonsense. The sole object of such com-
mentators seems to be to extort from Scripture confirmations of
Aristotelian quibbles and their own inventions, a proceeding which
I regard as the acme of absurdity” (ibid.).
He (Spinoza) further concludes from his examination of the
prophetic books that “the prophets were endowed with unusually
vivid imaginations, and not with unusually perfect minds (Solomon
was the wisest of all men, but had no special faculty of prophecy)
. . . “To suppose that knowledge of natural and spiritual phe-
nomena can be gained from the prophetic books, is an utter mis-
38
Isaac Husik
take.” “ Prophecies varied not only according to the imagination
and physical temperament of the prophet, but also according to his
particular opinions ; and prophecy never rendered the prophet
wiser than he was before” (II, 1-3). Prophetic knowledge is
inferior to natural knowledge, for the prophets required a sign
to assure them of the truth of the revelation, whereas natural
knowledge, like mathematical, carries its own certitude with it.
“Everyone,” he says, “has been strangely hasty in affirming
that the prophets knew everything within the scope of human
intellect; and although certain passages of Scripture plainly
affirm that the prophets were in certain respects ignorant, such
persons would rather say that they do not understand the passages
than admit that there was anything which the prophets did not
know ; or else they try to wrest the Scriptural words away from their
evident meaning. ... If either of these proceedings is allowable,
we may as well shut our Bibles, for vainly shall we attempt to prove
anything from them if their plainest passages may be classed among
obscure and impenetrable mysteries, or if we may put any interpre-
tation on them which we fancy” (ibid., 25).
Spinoza concludes therefore that “ in matters of theory without
bearing on charity or morality the prophets could be, and in fact
were, ignorant and held conflicting opinions. It therefore follows
that we must by no means go to the prophets for knowledge either
of natural or of spiritual phenomena” (ibid., 52).
In his discussion of miracles, Spinoza virtually abandons his
own canons of interpretation. Spinoza’s conception of God and
nature leads to a definite rejection of miracles in the sense of a
breach in natural law brought about by an intervention of the
Deity for a certain purpose. Spinoza states this very plainly.
Instead, however, of following his own rule and proceeding to an
impartial examination of Scripture, which would of course show
that the authors of the biblical narratives believed miracles possible,
Spinoza in this case, it would seem, is either not quite honest with
himself or was really misled into adopting a method of interpre-
tation which is not so different from that he so execrates in Mai-
momdes. He actually attempts to show that the Bible itself taught
a belief in the inviolability of natural law. He cites such passages
as that “there is nothing new under the sun” (Eccl. 1:10), or
He hath also established them [the heavens] for ever and ever ;
Maimonides and Spinoza
39
He hath made a decree which shall not be transgressed” (Ps.
148:6); or the passage in Jeremiah (31:36): “If these ordi-
nances [i. e., of the moon and the stars] depart from before me,
saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being
a nation before me forever.” As if the authors of the Bible were
familiar with the philosophy of Spinoza, and as if a few poetical
expressions can be used to countervail all the accounts of miracles
in the narrative portions of the Pentateuch. These, he explains,
have been misunderstood because “ Scripture does not explain
things by their secondary causes, but only narrates them in the
order and the style which has most power to move men, and
especially, uneducated men, to devotion; and therefore it speaks
inaccurately of God and of events, seeing that its object is not to
convince the reason, but to attract and lay hold of the imagination ”
(VI, 49). He goes into certain detailed explanations, he tells us,
“lest anyone should, by wrongly interpreting a miracle, rashly
suspect that he has found something in Scripture contrary to
human reason” (ibid., 52). But this latter motive was precisely
what led Maimonides to his interpretations, which Spinoza thinks
so absurd.
Likewise Spinoza gets into difficulties when he discusses the
meaning of the Divine Law (ch. IV). Here again Spinoza, to be
consistent with his metaphysical system, can not admit that
God can be conceived as a law-giver or potentate ordaining laws
for men. God is identical with the universe, and the laws of God
are the laws of nature, necessary, universal and unchangeable.
However, instead of admitting that the authors of the biblical
books had a different opinion and did conceive of God as a
“ potentate ordaining laws for men,” Spinoza attempts to show that
the Bible agrees with his philosophy, as Maimonides tried to show
that the Bible agrees with Aristotle’s philosophy. To prove his
point, he again has recourse to the poetic books of the Bible, thus:
“ Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth
understanding,” for “ wisdom gives length of days, and riches and
honour; her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are
peace” (Prov. 3: 16, 17), and other similar passages. This, says
Spinoza, teaches that salvation is dependent upon knowledge,
which of course includes the knowledge that all things are governed
by necessity and that God does not give commandments to man.
40
Isaac Husih
rewarding him for obedience and punishing him for disobedience
irrespective of the natural result of his conduct.
But the ceremonial law is a stumbling block in Spinoza’s path as
it was in that of Maimonides. What does he do with it? He tries
to make it out that Isaiah and Jeremiah and the Psalmist did not
take the ceremonial law seriously. The passages he quotes are the
well-known ones — Isaiah 1: 10; Ps. 40: 7-9; Jer. 9:23. All this
in spite of Leviticus. And he sums up the matter by saying that
the object of the ceremonial law was to perpetuate the State, “ that
men should do nothing of their own free will, but should always
act under external authority, and should continually confess by
their actions and thoughts that they were not their own masters,
but were entirely under the control of others. From all these
considerations it is clearer than day that ceremonies have nothing
to do with a state of blessedness, and that those mentioned in the
Old Testament, i. e., the whole Mosaic law, had reference merely
to the Government of
(ibid., Y, 31).
I confess that if I had to choose between Maimonides and Spinoza
in this particular point, I should prefer Maimonides. Happily I
am not forced to either.
The real contribution of Spinoza to biblical criticism, apart from
the canons of interpretation, which he did not, as we have seen,
follow successfully himself in certain cases, are the chapters on
the authorship of the Pentateuch and the historical and prophetic
books (VIII-X). Whatever we may say about the specific con-
clusions, his method is that of modern textual, historical and
literary criticism, and many of the points he made are now com-
monplaces of Biblical criticism. He argues against the Mosaic
authorship of the Pentateuch, though he is not yet familiar with
the documentary hypothesis, and conjectures that Ezra was the
author of the Pentateuch. “ Ezra,” he says, “ did not put the
finishing touches to the narratives contained therein, but merely
collected the histories from various writers, and sometimes simply
set them down, leaving their examination and arrangement to
posterity.”
These chapters in the Theological-Political Tractate are full
of interesting details, and the interested student is advised to read
them for himself.
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